For many of you, this is going to be a tough message to hear, so get ready.
You deserve exactly what you settle for.
I know that's hard to hear, because far too many of us are unhappy with our lives. Far too many of us live in pain, and far too many of us are weighed down by doubt and fear. Let me ask you something—are you at peace? Are you satisfied with where your life is going? Are you truly happy? Unfortunately, not many people in this world can truthfully answer 'yes' to all of those questions. Not many of us can say we have no regrets, and far too many of us wish things were different in certain ways.
I firmly believe that we deserve what we settle for, because in life, we experience a constant give and take. To be given anything, a lot has to be taken from us. To achieve something, work must be done. To accomplish our goals, anything short of incredible discipline and consistency won't cut it.
To put it bluntly, the more garbage you put up with, the worse your life will become. The more you settle for less than you deserve, the more you'll end up actually deserving less. That might seem harsh, but it's true. You can have all sorts of qualities, and you can work as hard as you want, but at the end of the day, you have to stay loyal to your vision. At the end of the day, you have to be more loyal to your vision than you are to the negativity. You have to trust your dreams more than you trust the nay-sayers, and you have to capitalize on opportunities even when that means letting go of others. Sometimes, the best thing you can do for yourself is take a leap, because guess what? If Michael Phelps never signed up for the Olympics, it wouldn't have mattered how much he trained. It wouldn't have mattered how well he trained, or how hard his coach pushed him. Because at the end of the day, you have to go out and take what you deserve.
Stop expecting everything on a silver platter. It's time for you to start living intentionally, and it's time for you to operate at full capacity instead of continuing to watch your life pass you by. Let me tell you something—if you're not trying your hardest, you're settling. If you're not doing your best every single day, you're settling for whatever your life would award you for less than your best. This week, I challenge you to find any area you're slacking on, whether it be your health, your career, or your relationships. Then, I want you to attack those areas, because it makes my heart soar when people realize what they're truly capable of.
It all starts with you.
