What’s The Alternative?

Effort only releases its reward after a person refuses to quit. -Napoleon Hill (1883-1970), Success teacher and author of best-selling Think and Grow Rich.

Mouth Spout

So when the going gets rough, what happens? When you lose a sale; get sick; have to take care of somebody else unexpectedly? What about when the economy gets difficult and even the easiest tasks are hard work? What do you do? How do you think? Most importantly ,what do you say? Do you listen to what comes out of your mouth? Do you realize how you behave? Do you think about what’s really happening?

When times are tough, it’s just so easy to quit; to roll up in a ball and crawl under the blanket and hope it all gets better. We sit around and chastise the government, the boss, or just about anybody we can. We go from one complaint department to the next hoping for an accepting audience that will justify our pity party. We search out a bunch of ‘yes-men’ that will agree with any nonsense we can spout.

Thumb Suck

Of course many of us don’t want to admit that this sounds remotely familiar, but we all do it. We all want to curl up and cry as the storm wails down upon us. The truth is that everybody needs a rest or a break; even the best professional fighters in the world need that quick recovery after each round. However, the difference is that they get up battered and bloodied and carry on.

Why? Well…what else are they supposed to do? If they quit on the stool they are vilified by the crowd as a true coward; after all they’re fighters. They’re supposed to battle on. They should be able to take a punch and counter with a couple of their own. We expect them to go the distance or at least get knocked out cold doing it. We taunt them from the safety of the stands, but we cower in the dark. What an irony; what a contradiction!

Hoodwinked Fools

Why do we demand such a performance of others, but don’t hold ourselves to the same standard? How could we, with a straight face, criticize anybody that battles forward? Do we really think that we’re going to get away with it? Do we really not realize we’re making complete fools of ourselves. Think about it…who’s currently on the attack list? Maybe Wall Street? Even the current administration is blaming the Street for the majority of our economic woes; but is it right? After all, don’t the masses line up to throw money at everybody that boasts of record returns? Ask Bernie what a bunch of lazy dreamers he hoodwinked…but of course it’s all his fault, right?

You see there is a bit of a sucker in all of us. It’s a trait that is probably more learned than inherited and that’s just the challenge. We’re all infecting each other with the whine, complain and quit syndrome. Every time something goes against us, we start pointing fingers…I wonder if our ancestors did they same as they hunted for food? Did they start arguing with each other about what had gone wrong and stop looking or did they move forward? Well there’s one thing for sure in the world of kill or be killed…you either kept going or you became extinct…quickly.

System Abusers

There was no welfare back then. You either found a group of survivors to hang with or you checked out. Spending time whining and complaining got you nowhere but dead. So over time our feelings evolved and we felt bad for each other, so we started organizing a support system that made sure nobody was left behind. But the problem is that the system had cracks. It offered opportunity for exploitation by the lazy and the liars…a pack bred from the world of whining and complaining. After all why work hard when you can live on the backs of others.

Now certainly there is always the occasion to take care of the widows and orphans, or those physically or mentally incapable; but what about those that are truly able yet would rather coast. If they’re calculated in their quest to manipulate a system, then they stand condemned and should be ashamed of their cowardly effort; but what about the rest of us that bounce around? Going from job to job, relationship to relationship; a virtual start and stop lifestyle. Quit, restart. Quit, restart. Hop to the next lilly pad because it looks loaded with big fat flys that will finally bulk up our muscles and take us to the promised land: a life of fulfillment!

Throw Punches

Yet when we jump, we suddently realize that all of this looks familiar or it’s worse than we thought and less than what we had! How crushing; but do we ever learn? Think about training for a marathon. It requires a regimen of disciplined work. Run every day, a bit further each week: a strict caloric intake procedure; a battle with fatigue, shin splints, sore muscles that never seem to recover. The goal is a big one, but the reward is huge. The ability to say that you’ve pushed yourself to the edge of your physical capabilities.

So why can’t we all realize that the marathon of life requires us to train the same way. We have to wake up each day and understand that this round might be good or bad, but we must throw punches. There is no alternative. There is no quit option. There may be plenty of reasons to plow forward, but none more important than self-preservation. A compilation of small victories that grow our self-image, that make us feel like we’re contributing. Not measured in money, but in self esteem. The feelings that make us realize the pre-wired success mechanism that we’re all capable of becoming. After all what’s the alternative? Stop quitting and start fighting again!! Do it for YOU! Rely and die or battle and thrive, it’s your choice!