“It’s lack of faith that makes people afraid of meeting challenges, and I believed in myself.”
– Muhammad Ali
The first time I decided to leave the country, everyone told me that I would die. Even my mom didn’t want me to go, she thought I’d be kidnapped. While I pretended that I didn’t care about anyone’s opinion, I secretly knew that those same fears had been in the back of my mind since purchasing my plane ticket. The night before I left, I seriously considered calling my trip off. Luckily, I didn’t.
If I had cancelled my plans, there would have been no benefits from doing so. I would only have missed out on new experiences and growing as a person. By following through on my original vision, I was rewarded greatly.
The first few months of eating healthy were hell. My friends would make fun of me for skipping out on late night McDonald’s runs, and I’d make family events “awkward” by not eating potato salad and dessert. Never the less, I stuck to my path and achieved success. By summer I had six pack abs, and girls would compliment me on being “ripped.”
When I started this blog it wasn’t uncommon for me to go days without getting a single page hit. Despite this, I knew that I had to keep writing. Every night I’d tell myself, “things will get better and you will succeed.” No matter how tired I was, I’d sit down and write. I even stayed in on New Years Eve to come up with different challenge ideas. Each time I checked the site stats I felt like quitting. If there were any “visitors,” they were from me making sure that the site actually existed.
When I felt like quitting, I’d tell myself: “just give it another week. Then you can quit.” After saying that to myself for three weeks, things finally started to pick up and the rewards slowly started to trickle in.
If you ever find yourself wanting to give up on something, try answering this question: “will I achieve the same results from quitting?” If the answer is no, keep going. You will succeed, much sooner than you think.