It Takes a Long Time to Be Successful
We start daydreaming about an idea or something we want to be, do, or have. Our goals or dreams capture our minds and emotions to the possibilities that will open to us once we reach this new goal.
All the following: big goals, visions for your life, or any major success you want to achieve will take a lot longer than you anticipate when you start the journey.
This dream, idea, or goal energized us to be ready to take on the world. What a feeling?
Accomplishing your goals is like climbing a mountain. The time or skills you need to reach the top of the mountain depends on its size.
Of course, from afar, climbing the mountain seems easy with smooth terrain and a manageable trail; with eagerness and confidence, you sprint to your starting point.
Some days you have a great start, and other times it is a difficult start. At that moment, you realized that I might have miscalculated my skills and the time it will take to complete that task.
Often, some people will not make it far enough up the mountain to be invested in the journey because they quit too early. For those people, their dreams, ideas, or goals were not worth the sacrifice. They were not willing to invest the time it will take to accomplish that goal.
This is the tricky part of reaching, desiring, and wanting more for your life; you must invest enough money, blood, sweat, and tears to get to the point of no return, and quitting is not an option. That’s the reality that your goals will take longer to reach; you just don’t know how long it will take. Even though it will likely take far longer than you think to reach your goal, keep going until the end.
Climbing a mountain is a metaphor to help you understand the concept of the time it takes to be successful. Let me tell you a story.
For example, I started my doctorate in 2011 with the complete understanding that I will be done in 4 years. I mapped out all my courses with dates and times of when to complete all of them. I stuck with my plan of completing all my courses within 18 months to give me enough time to complete my dissertation. I did complete all my courses within 18 months. I was very excited and proud of myself.
With keeping up with my plan, I thought that I would just quickly complete my dissertation within four years. Nope, that’s not what happened.
It took me ten years to finish my doctorate. Many circumstances prevented the finishing of the four years. After year six, I wanted to quit, but I didn’t. I asked for support from my school librarian to help me find a topic to study and formulate my research; that did not work. I was utterly done financially, emotionally, and physically after eight years; I wanted to quit. I did quit, and I didn’t do anything for 11 weeks. Guess what? I couldn’t quit because I had invested too much time, money, and mental energy to quit. I was too far along the journey to just quit. So I continued and pushed forward until I complete my dissertation this year at exactly ten years.
I would have never started my doctorate if I knew it would take this long, but it was important for me to have a doctorate. Therefore, I made the sacrifice of time, money, and energy to accomplish my dream.
Be patient and keep moving forward.
