Mid-course corrections

There is a famous saying, “There is no failure, except in no longer trying.”  I believe this to be true.  We all succeed at producing results, it’s just that some people are producing results that they don’t want.  So we must learn to adapt, adjust and improve ourselve’s and our skills so that we can start producing the results we do want.  Mid-course adjustments. 

A good analogy is the boat on it’s way to Hawaii from the mainland, or the jet on the way to Honolulu from San Francisco.  They are both off track a lot of the time, but they make adjustments to their course and eventually arrive at the desired destination.  If you ask a captain or pilot how many adjustments are made in one trip, the answer is many.  It’s a continuous process. 

Too many people expect things to be handed to them, that it will be relatively easy to succeed, then they find out they are off course and they give up.  This is a product, I believe, of our instant society.  We expect instant results, instant feedback, instant breakfast, heck… I get really irritated if it takes more than a couple of seconds to navigate from one website to another!  A couple of seconds!  I know how hard it is to delay gratification and work on myself.  Many people have already given up and are just existing their final years, instead of achieving.  As Jim Rohn says, “Most people are just trying to get through the day.  You need to get something from the day, don’t just get through it.”  Learn something, accomplish something.  Keep striving and growing.

Unfortunately, this instant gratification sets expectations that are unrealistic in most of life’s scenarios.  REAL value is not come by easily.  It is earned.  We must expect to work hard on ourselve’s to DESERVE what we desire.  Then we have a chance to be truly successfull. 

Life doesn’t respond to need.  Life responds to deserve.  If you really need to reap, as the old saying goes, then you really need to plant.  Reaping is reserved for the planters.  That is what bothers me about our culture these days.  Entitlements.  People think that just because they have a need, they deserve something.  That’s not how life works.  Don’t bring the marketplace your needs, bring your value, your skills.  That is the secret of getting ahead. 

People are so entrenched in this idea of entitlements.  It is counter to nature, and not how our system should be set up.  If you continue to take away from the producers and give to the non-productive, the society will break down.  There will be no motivation to produce, and everyone will become non-productive.  That’s the end of our society right there.  No.  We need self responsibility, accountability and people willing to work for what they need.  Deserve everything you get, or don’t take it. 

It’s never too late to change our habits and expectations.  We need to wake up and evaluate just what are we producing, and are we really deserving of what we are taking?  Be prepared for struggles, don’t blame others and don’t give up.  When you need a helping hand, look at the end of your own wrist. 

The world is an abundant place.  Certainly our country, in this time, is the most plentiful place ever created in the history of the world.  If you are struggling here and now, you must look within yourself, not outside at the system.  Improvise, adapt and overcome (Like Gunny Highway said in Heartbreak Ridge).  Mid-course corrections.  Don’t be afraid of getting a little off course.  Just continue to evaluate where you are in relation to where you want to be, and if you persist in making those needed corrections, you will end up right where you desire.

For some people, it’s easy.  For others, it takes enormous energy and desire to translate their goals into reality.  Nobody said the world is fair.  The world does, however, respond to deserve and NOT need.  Remember that.