Can you imagine the tiny double edged razor blade being the only ticket a rogue prisoner has to escape prison? Can you imagine the razor blade cutting through window bars to create the magical escape route for the prisoner? Does it even make sense? Well, it does and it has happened before. As I watched an episode in the ‘I (Almost) Got Away With It’ documentary series, I could only see the power of consistent effort. One determined prisoner armed with razor blades and a toothbrush spent days cutting down a prison window until it came down. He needed freedom and consistent effort was all that was required for it to be achieved. Of course I am not advocating for prison breaks (the dude was rearrested shortly after his escape but that’s a story for another day) but we can learn vital life changing lessons from the same.
Most people yearn and wish to be successful in their various endeavors. However, wishes alone have no powers to bring about tangible results. While many people have had good intentions about success, many too have never been intentional about it. Many are yet to inject effort in their ideas, dreams and aspirations and that has left such people successful only in their minds. Effort is about injection of deliberate action which is the single most trusted avenue to achievement. Action sets apart successful people from the rest.
Effort is the surest way of expression of interest for accomplishments. No one became a winner by shouting their intentions for winning; but by rolling their sleeves and getting down to get it done. Life rewards consistent effort and not wishes, admiration and empty talk. There is an African proverb that my grandfather used to tell me, ‘a hoe (jembe) that gets to the farm, never comes back empty handed’. This means that where effort is invested, rewards follow. It is good to dream, to wish, to strategize and to plan but it is better to demonstrate effort by taking deliberate action.
The world is awash with people who are gradually getting disappointed and giving up because their plans do not materialize as conceived in their minds. Many are waiting for the ‘right’ time that never seems to come while a whole lot of others have scattered their efforts in different things allover; today they try this thing, lose patience and try a different one the following day. Eventually, they cite the unfairness of the system and even get tempted to curse the few who appear to have made it in the same endeavors.
Life never gives you what you deserve, it gives you what you demand; you demand by making effort towards what you want to accomplish. If you want something to happen, invest commensurate effort consistently; knock until the door opens one way or the other. Many people can try out something but it’s the consistent ones that remain standing when the rest have given up. Consistency is the measure of your desire for accomplishment; the world bows for people who exude consistency in their endeavors. Athletes who get tired and slow down in the last phases of a race never make their way to the books of history because they get overtaken by those who have been consistent in their actions throughout the race.
For you to be consistent in effort, you need to be aware of what awaits you at the finish line. You must know what you envision to accomplish and be sure that that is what you need to achieve. Once your goals are clear to you, then you work backwards and define the actions that are required to achieve the same. Only then can you be consistent in your efforts. Many who give up do so because they put their effort in endeavors whose end product they are unsure of; they often pray that a miracle catches up with them along the way. When you know what you want, go for it; do not stop when you are tired, stop when you are done. Consistent effort rewards consistently and abundantly so. YOU CAN DO BETTER!
Roy Okonji,
Personal Development Coach, Motivational Speaker and Author
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