Lose Your Quit Quest 23

Step 23:  Make hustle a lifestyle, not an Axe body spray

Hustle - to proceed or work rapidly or energetically.

Southern equivalent - to get 'er done.

Let's see, I've already ranted about staying away from anything that says, "with little to no effort."  I've already covered resting to be more productive.  Quite honestly, I can't write on this one better than Jon Acuff, the originator of this list.  In this post he says:

“It’s too late to work on my goals this year.”

January is for resolutions and goals. It’s when we buy calendars and running sneakers and kale. That’s the only time you can really focus on changing your life.

By April, you’ve missed your chance. Too much of the year is already gone. The moment of inspiration has passed.

That’s garbage.

At this moment right now, you have 36 weeks left in 2016. Next week, you’ve got 35 weeks.  The year has barely begun.

Where does it say you can’t work on goals in April and May? Where does it say that just because the rest of the world has quit, you have to as well? 

I love January, but it’s not the best month to knock out a goal.

The best month to work on your goals is always this month.

I think one reason we let go of our goals so quickly is that we fear criticism.  Not everyone is going to agree with your goals (quite frankly, everyone doesn't need to know them either).  Those who smile in your face today will be the ones who ask you "Who do you think you are" tomorrow. Even people who say they love and support you can be your biggest detractors and worst saboteurs.

These people do not deserve a voice in your process of change.

Theodore Roosevelt said:

It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena; whose face is marred by sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotion, spends himself in a worthy cause; who at best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement; and who at worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who have never tasted victory or defeat.

You, my friend, are that "worthy cause."

Don't quit before the miracle happens.