Are Your Goals Worth the Sacrifice?

When setting big goals, one of the most important things you must do is consider what it takes to achieve them.

When you’re hungry and pizza is your favourite food, you’ll be happy driving 20 minutes to go and collect it. But what if that drive becomes 2 hours? Do you go? Or do you settle for whatever frozen meal you have at home?

It doesn’t matter how badly we want something, the sacrifices of getting it have to be worthwhile. And when we’re talking about chasing big goals or your dreams, there isn’t exactly a shortage of sacrifices.

Goals are sexy, they’re exciting, and the feeling of achieving them makes us feel warm inside. But working towards them is a completely different story.

Early mornings, setbacks, losing friends, constantly questioning your abilities, embarrassments, and days that look exactly the same. And then doing it for years, often without any sign that any of it is paying off.

This is why you have to be obsessed with the goals you set, without needing whatever external reward achieving it might bring. Because the truth is, with most difficult goals, no amount of money or shiny items is enough to get you through the trenches of getting there. 

The magnitude of your goals is a direct indicator of the magnitude of sacrifices that you’ll have to make along the way. So you have to have a pretty good reason to want it.

Being the greatest of all time at something sounds great until you consider what it takes to get there.

Being Mike Tyson sounds cool, until you realise what it took to be him. You cannot get the part you want without the part you don’t. 

The point of this is to remind you of the importance of intrinsic motivation. You simply have to want what you’re working towards more than you hate the sacrifices it takes to get there. 

Would you do it for free? 

Can you imagine not doing it?

Are you obsessed with the journey itself? 

Is the person you’re becoming along the way worth more than the reward?

If you’re yet to find the thing you’re obsessed with, do not take this as a sign to settle for the life you currently have.

If you’re yet to find it, what makes you think doing what you’ve always done will change anything? Do not keep doing the same thing and expecting a different result. 

The answer you’re looking for is the experience you're yet to have.

Choose something, realise it wasn’t right, figure out why, and then try something else.

Anything is better than nothing, and with enough ‘anythings’, you’ll eventually find THE thing.