Don’t do anything fast that you want to last

When you want things to happen quickly, to happen now, it either doesn’t happen or it does, but then you soon lose the very thing you gained. A great example is fitness, right? You crash diet yourself into a weight range or a dress size for an occasion, only to find that weeks or months later, the creep happened. Again. Despite how many promises you made to yourself that it wouldn’t this time. That things would be different.

And yes, the problem might be that you lack discipline in this area of your life, but there’s a reason for that — you neglected the role of time, not in helping you reach the goal but in teaching you how to maintain it. See, had you taken the long, arduous road to getting that goal instead of the quick crash-diet shortcut, you would have invested enough time in breaking bad habits and building good ones. This reconfiguring of your mind is what helps us maintain the changes we’re making. And that can never happen overnight.

This means that when you want things to happen quickly or right away, you are robbing yourself of 99% of the value and power that lies in the process, the journey. Because getting the goal is the easiest part. Maintaining the goal — becoming the kind of person who stays fit and healthy for life — means uprooting years and years of bad habits that are stuck in your cells and wired into your brain, and then allowing the daily choices towards who you truly want to be to gain strong roots. In this, habit-building, we are just like the trees and plants we nurture — real, sustainable growth takes time!

Another example: you might want to make all the money now but without understanding how to be the kind of person who manages money wisely, you will lose it. First try managing what you do have, and getting really good at it. Know where every cent goes. Identify the bad habits you have and begin changing them.

It applies to any goal we have. You might want to get your dream right away, but can you manage what it means to have it? The time it will require? The connections that will suffer? How much it will change you? …because that’s a fact — going after our dreams will change us, and this affects everything and everyone around us unless they possess the patience and resonance to withstand it. I don’t think people like to hear this, but no…