A few years ago, my nephew tried out for his high school JV team. He was a good basketball player, and he worked his butt off at the tryout. He got cut. It’s a big high school and there were a lot of kids who tried out.
His younger brother just found out he made the them team. He never made a single basket during tryouts. He didn’t put in an out an ounce of effort at the tryouts.
What? How is that possible.
I’ll tell you how it’s possible. It’s possible because the performance matters, but not as much as the work. The work is what matters.
He’d seen his brother get cut, and he knew his brother was good. He DECIDED he was making the basketball team. Decision made. A year out, he started training. His dad (my brother-in-law) is a super fit guy who’s been into weightlifting for at least the last twenty years. Every morning before school, this kid would get up with his dad and lift weights. That’s 5 am before school. The basketball coach held open gym trainings months before the tryouts. This kid didn’t miss one. He went to EVERY SINGLE training possible and busted his butt while he was there.
He was good to begin with and now he’d worked hard. Not for a week. Not for a month. For a year. He had a goal in mind, and he worked toward it every day.
Then the unthinkable happened. Three weeks before tryouts, wrestling with some buddies he fell on his right arm, hard. He went to the orthopedic office, got an x-ray, and the tears started. His wrist was broken and would need to be casted for at least four weeks. He wouldn’t be able to touch a basketball during tryouts.
He spoke with the coach. He went and sat at every tryout and watched. Dying inside. Tryouts went for an unbearable week, and then he got the best news of his 15 years long life. He’d made the team.
Put in the work. Be proud of the work. The goal matters because that’s the magnet that draws you but fall in love with the work and everyone will notice. Do the work, and you’ll get to your goals. You’ll have to. Even if things don’t go forward in a straight line, they go forward if you do the work. But you can’t fake it. You have to put in the work for real.
You can’t sit in your chair and say that you’re studying because you sat there. You have to WORK. Want some help? Want to work better? Want to make the work and time worth it?
Let me help:
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Maximize Your Time and Efficiency
It’s a short course I created to help pour gasoline on your studying. You’re going to love it. Let’s get started.
Brian Wallace