Motivation

No Free Passes

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Many people are looking for a shortcut, a silver bullet that will quickly and easily get them where they want to go. They really believe there’s some secret that they’re just not privy to yet. If someone more skilled, more qualified, would just give up the goods then they too could reach a level of mastery in the area they’re pursuing.

But the people who are skilled didn’t get there through shortcuts. There are no free passes in any endeavor that’s worthwhile, only isolating and then unfolding potentialities with hard work and dedication. The irony is it’s the underlying attitude that things should be easy, that there’s a quick way to slice through all the layers of effort to get excellent results, that keeps people from ever getting really good at anything because they never get down to the business of working really hard, instead wasting all their time looking for shortcuts.

If you’re interested in pursuing some endeavor but aren’t interested in giving every ounce of yourself to it, if you aren’t interested in fully committing for the long haul, you shouldn’t even start because you’re not going to get good results. Masters at anything don’t become masters with parlor tricks, they become masters with a mixture of natural talent, blood, sweat, and tears.