Swimming against the current is hard for a reason

Photo source by https://unsplash.com/@toddquackenbush?photo=E9PJO_vL3E8

To pick up where we left off last time, accomplishing your wildest dreams is possible, but it takes more effort than the "overnight success" stories care to tell. A society of participation trophies and not keeping score, as to not hurt people's feelings is failing to prepare the next generation for the battle that life will hand them. This may come as a surprise to some but, life isn't easy, nor will it ever be, because it wasn't meant to be that way in the first place.

I have experienced life's battles first hand. From a young age, I was made fun of for being short. To this day, people find it their duty to remind me of how short I am, that it's not OK to be so, and that I am less valuable a person because of this single trait. So much that when I was younger, it felt like a burden I was incapable of baring. This created a feeling deep inside like I had something to prove, yet lacked the confidence to go the distance to prove it. As a result, I never really found out how much fight I had inside of me, until I stumbled upon competitive bodybuilding.

It was through the consistent pushing of my limits a little bit further every day, to prepare for every competition, that I realized that I was capable of proving the naysayers wrong, and have fun doing it at the same time. It was through this journey that I realized I could do something that the masses are incapable of. A very small percentage of the population is willing to do what it takes to get their body to where it needs to be, in order to compete, let alone win a bodybuilding competition.

I share this experience with you, my audience, not to brag about how awesome I am, because those of you who know me, know that I am not a big deal, nor do I fantasize about being one. I share this story to show that even average people can do great things, if they are consistent enough over a period of time, and refuse to give up on their goals, no matter what others say we are, or are not capable of. We set our limits any way, not them.

So, why are most people not where they want to be in life? There are always exceptions, but generally speaking, the reason a majority of people are "stuck in a rut" is because it's easier to complain about not being where they'd like to be in life, than actually doing something about it.

We all have thrown a pity party or two in our lifetime, myself included, it's almost instinctual. The good news is you can change your paradigm at any moment, and shed those unwanted pounds, finish that degree you are only 9 credits short of, or go for that promotion you've been eyeing for years.

All we have to do is take a stand, draw a line in the sand and say to ourselves, "From here on out, I will not rest until I accomplish what I've come here to do". It won't be easy. It will require you to make sacrifices way before you start to see results. There will be an unlimited number of critics that will tell you all the reasons why you won't do it. There will be many times along the way when you doubt if you've made the right decision, especially if your dream is big and scary enough.

Don't worry, when you finally reach the summit, those same critics will be the first ones to say "I knew they could do it the whole time". At this point in your journey I'm sure this all sounds a bit weird, maybe even unrealistic, but life is stranger than fiction.

Why is going against the grain that much harder than going along with the crowd? 

Because there is a lot more resistance, more pressure to fit in with what everyone else is doing, but that's not what you want, right? You want to accomplish something more. The problem is growth hurts at first, but you get used to it. You even start to welcome it.

Someone much wiser than myself once said "You can do what's easy, and your life will be hard. However, if you do what's hard, your life will be easy" - Les Brown.

It really is a jungle out there in the world of tech start ups, and only the strongest will survive. My goal is that if you get nothing else from this blog but this one message, I will consider it an all around win, and it is that you do not have to conform to other people's limits, no matter how compelling they may be.

Robert Morton

Co-founder