This seems to be the single most debated question when people are asked why they do not put more effort into realizing their life goals. Whether that goal may be creating a successful business, becoming a musical artist, or learning to program, each of these take hours of effort. Mastery is not accomplished within a day. Neither are your life goals.
While it is hotly debatable how many hours you have to put into something to accomplish mastery of something, it is generally agreed that it is in the thousands. To put that into context, if you worked 12 hours a day, the other 12 for food and rest, a full 365 days of work would total up to 4400 hours.
Now, time spent does NOT equal results. But it is a definite correlation. So imagine trying to achieve this life goal by putting in 1 hour whenever you “had the time and motivation.” Consistency is rare, it would be more realistic to say you put in 3 hours a week. That would take 28 years to get to hit 4400 hours.
Imagine envying the results of an individual by putting in 1/30 their time. No matter how many numbers you adjust, this seems silly to do.
A life goal is meaningful because few people achieve it. It’s prestigious for a reason: it takes sacrifice. I’m not even talking about big, life altering sacrifices, I’m talking about forgoing going out with friends every week. I’m talking about not playing an hour of video games a day or on weekends.
If you can’t make small sacrifices like these, your dreams will become the sacrifice.
This is painful to swallow. And even more painful to apply. Because when you initially turn down your friends for a saturdays’ night out, your brain will protest: “you’re missing out on life!” [Now a disclaimer: this does not mean ignoring your friends and cutting them off completely. Catching up and keeping up bonds is absolutely important, but doesn’t require weekly hangouts.]
“You’re missing out on life by giving up on x. What’s life if not for the small pleasures?”
Now you know that you’re not really abandoning all small pleasures of life. But your brain sure as hell tells you that you are. This is why I think so many people are not able to put in a tenth of the time to achieve the bare minimum of what they want out of life. They just can’t let go of the small temptations when they come up. They tell themselves what’s life if I can’t enjoy these small things?
But are we truly missing out on life? Or will we regret on our deathbeds not having put our foot on the ground and nurturing our dreams, at the expense of smaller, instant pleasures.
Do not see these sacrifices as sacrifices. If you view this in the timeline of your life, or even a decade, these “sacrifices” are what will get you to your dreams. That’s why they’re called “life” goals for a reason.
If you’ve got life goals that you have been putting off on or just trickling by, write it here. They’re only real as much as you work on them.
-Friendly Titan
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