Your goal shouldn’t be the end result, but rather the struggle, pain, and excruciating process that leads to it. The goal itself won’t make you better, it’s the grind, the process, and the struggle that will sharpen you, strengthen you, and make you tougher.
The metaphor of success being a mountain with an end point is flawed. There is no end. Believing in an end will take you away from what’s making you better – the grind, the process, and the struggle of an ambitious life.
Expecting the grind to go away is like wanting the thing that makes you better to disappear. Resting on top of the mountain and thinking that you’re done with life is giving up or giving in. You’re not working towards an end, you’re hustling because you love the hustle, and you see the necessity of it.
To be great, you need to acquire the hard view, the torturous view that every day, you’re going to wake up and thrive at what others run from: the struggle, the hustle, and the pain that makes weak men strong and strong men great.
The struggle gives, it doesn’t take. It may seem like it’s breaking you down, but you decide whether it makes you stronger or if it defeats you. If you have any ounce of ambition or pride, you’re going to use the struggle daily to become stronger and harder.
The best among us add to the struggle. They train harder even when they don’t have to. They wake up earlier and do something immediately to get into the day. They use discipline to rule every area of their life, not just a few areas that they think are more valuable than others. They make their lives tougher because they’re tougher.
If you want to become something more than the weak, soft, sedated male of our modern world, you need to train harder. Training isn’t just relegated to the gym, it’s your way of life, it is your life, and you understand that it’s this training that you need to become who and what you want to become. Get at it.
