Drop the Bricks if You Want to Succeed

You have a goal. You want to succeed. Do you want to succeed as soon as possible? If so, drop the damned bricks!!!

(I am including this post on both of my blogs, because it is appropriate for both, “You are Stronger than You can Possibly Imagine” and “Phoenix Fit”. Readers of each will benefit from this message.)

Dropping your bricks will help you move faster

We are all carrying bricks and these bricks are slowing us down. The bricks are anything that is impeding our progress, making it more difficult to succeed. If you want to succeed, you need to make a commitment. You need to make the best use of your time and you need to eliminate the things that make success difficult.

Whatever your goal, you should be asking yourself one question over and over again, all day, every day. What’s the question? Simple. “Is what I am doing at this very moment, moving me closer to, or farther from, my goal?” That’s it. Ask yourself that question, and when you know the answer, act accordingly.

What are your bricks?

So, what are these bricks anyway? Well, these are the things that hold us back from our goals. For instance, fear and self-doubt are pure baggage and prevent us from taking the risks necessary to succeed in many endeavors. As for fitness, junk food and poor sleep habits make success in the gym far less likely.

Most of the bricks are universally damaging to basically any goal and we need to drop them now. The reason I refer to these impediments to our success as bricks is because we carry them around, metaphorically, like a sack of bricks. They weigh us down and slow our progress.

It’s like we are running toward our goal. We can see it far ahead of us. We want to run as fast as we can to get there as soon as possible because our lives will be better when we get there. However, we are lugging this heavy sack of bricks with us everywhere we go. It drags us down and slows us. The strap is digging into our shoulders, yet we refuse to simply drop it, even though we can.

Can we simply set the sack of bricks down?

Well, yes.

Oh, come on! Is it really as easy as that? Just set the sack down?

That’s a fair question. Let’s take a look and see. Since I am writing this for the fitness crowd as well as the life-goal crowd, I’ll split the two for this section.

Fitness:

What bricks are in this sack?

1. Junk food

2. Alcohol

3. Procrastination

4. Poor sleep habits

5. Excuses

Can we drop these bricks? Sure. No one will make you eat junk food or drink alcohol. It may be tempting, and you may be in the habit of consuming both, but why would you continue? It’s no secret that both of these provide useless, empty calories. The next time you are about to pick up a beer or a burger, ask yourself, “Do I want this, or that chiseled beach-body I have been working so hard to create?” Then, set the burger, beer and brick down.

Procrastination. I’ll get around to discussing this one later. (Just kidding) This one, like alcohol, is a problem for achieving any goal. Like alcohol, this will keep you from your goals longer simply by wasting time. Both of these bricks steal time. Use your time to work on your goals and you will make them a reality. How hard is it to drop this brick? Get to the gym…NOW!

Proper rest and sleep are necessary for recovery when working out. Staying up late, watching T.V. (another brick) or drinking, or both, will rob you of your sleep. Drop the brick and get to bed on time. If you are well rested, you will get more done.

Excuses are the first brick to drop no matter what you are trying to do. Again, how tough is it to drop this brick? No excuse is valid. Quit complaining and do what needs to be done. If you refuse to drop this brick, you’ll get nothing done because . . . (insert B.S. excuse here) will prevent your success. I say the following every day.

“Excuses are lies that we tell ourselves to give ourselves permission to quit.”

Drop that stupid, worthless brick and move on! Next . . .

Life-Goal:

What bricks are in this sack?

Well, there are a few duplicates here. No need to double-up. But there are a few must-mentions here.

1. Fear

2. Self-Pity

3. Self-doubt

4. Ego

5. Plan B

6. Alcohol

7. Procrastination

8. Excuses

Of course, there are more, but I think you’ll get the idea with these.

Fear of failure is a huge killer of dreams. Look, in order to succeed, you MUST come to terms with a simple idea. Everyone fails, and successful people fail more than most. The reason they fail so often, is because they take more risks. The more risks you take, the more failures you will have. However, you will also have more successes. That’s simply the way life works. If you want to succeed, you MUST drop the brick of fear.

A close personal friend of fear, is self-pity. This has to be one of the greatest wastes of time and energy ever! Quit your crying! Everyone has tough times. YES! EVERYONE! Get over it. Sometimes things go wrong and our plans don’t work out. Let it go. Learn from failures, hard times and disappointments and use this knowledge to be stronger, wiser and better. Drop this brick right now. It has only one use, slowing you down!

Another self-imposed obstacle we tend to carry with us is self-doubt. The sooner you drop this brick and begin to fail your way to success, the sooner you will begin to build confidence. Take the chances, fail repeatedly until you succeed. Once you succeed, you will see that you are as capable as anyone and self-doubt will be gone for good!

Ego is another ridiculous brick to carry, and here is how it slows you down. It will partner with fear to prevent you from taking the necessary risks needed to succeed. You will hold back from trying because you may fail and look bad. So the hell what??? Fail, look bad, repeat. Keep doing this amid people laughing at you. Here is another quote of mine you may like.

“If you have a big dream, first they will laugh at you, then they will pity you, if you never give up, eventually, they will admire you.”

Drop the brick.

The last brick I want to address, that you need to drop is, any “Plan B”.

This is your back-up plan, your safety net. You must eliminate this. As Will Smith says,

“I never have a Plan B, it distracts from Plan A?”

You see, if you have a safe retreat, you will use it when the going gets tough. (Spoiler alert: It WILL get tough!)

I love the example I created for this. (There’s my ego talking.)

Most people think they can’t run a 100-yard dash with a broken leg. They are wrong. If you break your leg because you fell, running from a rapidly approaching forest fire, with safety 100 yards away, I bet you’d run your fastest 100-yard dash ever. (Especially if you have dropped all your bricks!)

So, drop your bricks and lighten your load. Run toward your goals freely and without any useless burden. Live life on your terms.

It’s all up to you!