“Everything is hard before it’s easy.”

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

What you see is:

• The final product. 
• The performance. 
• Are a select few stories of “success”. 
• What the “media” determines is important for you to see. 
• Posts from people who are continually posting on social media. 
• The awards, or award shows. 
• Stories of people who lose over a hundred pounds or more on some reality show, using a fad diet or the latest weight loss hack. 

What you often see is people making the hard, look easy. 

What you often don’t see is:

• The hard work, practice and preparation that goes on behind the scenes prior to a concert, Broadway play, movie, or sporting event. 
• The mistakes, failures and struggles on the journey to make the hard, look easy.
• The personal struggles people are going through. The insecurities, the doubts, fears, and challenges. 
• The stories of the people who make it through military special operations qualification then get kicked out of the unit for serious character issues, criminal behaviour, or inability to function in that environment. 
• The people who are “successful” in business, athletics, or some other area, but whose personal lives are a train wreck.
• The stories of the people who are unsuccessful in making it through military special operations qualification, but then go on to have successful careers in the military and / or in civilian life despite not having achieved the goal of being a member of the special operations community.
• The stories of people who lost hundreds of pounds on a reality show or using some fad diet or weight loss hack and then put the weight all back on plus some.  

Be careful of assuming that what you do see:

• Applies to everyone in a specific profession. 
• Is reality. (Hint: Social media is not reality. Reality shows are not reality.)
• Is all there is.
• Somehow means that “success” equates to happiness and fulfillment. 
• Means you are somehow less than, or a failure because that is not your reality.

What’s Important Now? Accept that everything is hard before it is easy. Embrace the struggle. Embrace the suck. Look for the learning. Look for the good. Dare to Be Great. 

Take care.

Brian Willis

www.lifesmostpowerfulquestion.com

ONE QUESTION BRINGING FOCUS AND CLARITY IN THE CHAOS AND COMPLEXITY OF TODAY'S WORLD.

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