I a lot of people say that sacrifice is the key to success and they are spot on. Success is pretty much dependent on sacrifice. If want to win a gold metal in the Olympics you don’t sit around playing video games or go out with your friends. You train and you train and you train. The same thing can be applied to business. If you want to be successful you have to make sacrifices in your life.
I am pretty much to the point where I evaluate any leisure activity to decide if I should be doing it or not. If Saturday night comes around and I feel like I got a lot of work done during the week I’ll go out. If I feel like I haven’t I’ll stay home and work.
It’s very important that you’re honest with yourself. Justifying being lazy or unproductive to yourself does nothing but hold you back from success. Thing about these things next time you’re presented with a leisure activity:
- Have I accomplished everything I wanted to accomplish today or this week?
- Is anyone else depending on me to complete something or pull my weight on a project? (This is important if you’re working in a group)
- Am I really working toward my goals?
- Do I really want to go out or am I just trying to make someone else happy?