Dedication And Hard Work Pays Off To Get Ahead

Motivation and hard work always pay off...period! Just today, I passed my CISSP certification examination that I've been studying for non-stop. I don't want to toot my own horn too much here, but I did study a ton and work really hard to achieve this goal. The concept led me to some very key takeaways here that I'd love to share with everyone.

Hard work is something that you always hear about. A lot of people don't believe it. The thing is, a lot of people do get lucky, but that's never a guarantee. Hard work is always a guarantee to achieving goals. There is no equation where you can be guaranteed something that doesn't involve hard work in some capacity.

I too often see people complaining that they're not changing and they are stuck with what they have. It's really tough to deal with these kinds of thinkers. Tony Robbins had a great quote:

I love this quote. I think it embodies a lot of concepts that people don't think about. My last company had a lot of thinkers like this. They'd do the same work and never try to self-develop in any capacity. Yet they'd complain about never moving forward.

It all starts with goals. Once you have goals, you have something that you can think about. Now let me make this extremely clear. You actually have to WANT this goal!!! This may sound obvious but if you don't think about it and truly want it, it'll never be a goal. If you want it, you'll make a plan.

Think about this, if you want pizza for dinner, you make a plan and call the restaurant to place an order. From there you take the information you are given (for example, "pizza is ready in 20 minutes"), then you finish the plan by accepting and working around the issues in your way. Ultimately, you get your pizza for dinner.

For me, this was simple. I wanted that certification. I wanted those initials "CISSP" after my name on my LinkedIn profile and business cards. That was my goal! From there, I made a plan. I studied and truly wanted it. I scheduled my exam date and made sure I knew the best way to achieve my goal. It's all I focused on. As easy as it would have been to get distracted by friends, fun, activities, I stayed focused and achieved my goal.

Already, I've seen the impact of reaching this goal. I'm not a bit more in demand for jobs that I want, and I am able to increase my salary requirements. Once you start to see the benefits and reap the rewards of accomplishing your goals, things make sense and it keeps you on the right track to keep doing more and more.

Seeing hard work pay off is one of the best rewards. It keeps me focused. My goals and plans keep being reinforced to me and it makes me constantly stay on the path to setting more goals and achieving them.

Lots of times putting in the dedication to accomplish goals is tough! I get it! I've basically had no life the last year while I finish my Master's program, but that's another goal and I accept. Knowing that things will be worth it in the end is the best reward and makes up for all of the stress. You put in some work to have it be more rewarding for you in the end.

I hope that you all continue to set goals that you truly want. They also need to be goals that you can accomplish. If you shoot for the stars off the bat, you will never accomplish them since you don't know how good accomplishing goals feels like. Start small and stay motivated!