What is your sacrifice?

How about losing some weight? yes, but those french fries and beer are tempting. You want to get fit and accomplish the year resolution to run 21k, but the bed at 5:00am is extremely cozy. The idea of finishing that book is still around in your head, but Netflix and Youtube keeps popping out on your laptop. You want to become a manager and lead a team, but playing that video game at night is more fun than studying.

All along our lives we meet crossroads as simple and yet as difficult as the ones I've mentioned above, but there is single truth I've learned along the way and I always remind myself when I cross someone (or myself) complaining: only yourself are responsible, no one else. In this post I want to use my experiences when I started running as an example, because throughout I kept making small but important sacrifices that were essential, and this ability can be extrapolated to your professional or personal goals.

The first thing you have to do is remove excuses from your life and face the fact that no one but you is going to set your mood to do something. If you have a project, an idea, or a life objective you want to execute, visualize it and be honest about it. Write it down in a very simple form, drop the rules for SMART objectives, just answer the question "what do you want to do?", and with complete honesty go for it.

As soon as you know what you want, make it visible so that every single day you can see it and be reminded of your goal. I like using both technology and old-school paper to write down tasks and reminders but because we are talking about life-fulfilling goals, I'm going to suggest to keep your long term goals together in a physical medium (e.g. a board hanging on your wall) and your short term tasks to accomplish the goals in your digital agenda.

In order to advance on your tasks, start by scheduling to-dos and reminders. Break it down in small tasks. For example, to start jogging at 5:00 am, after several (i.e. many) failures of waking up I realized the problem was I didn't go to bed early, so I started setting alarms at 9:00pm reminding me to "shut down the computer", "go to bed and read". Thats it, that is my first sacrifice, go to bed like a hen and stop doing plenty of things at night, keeping my ultimate goal in mind.

There are times where you will not be satisfied with the progress. Nevertheless, don't forget to celebrate small victories.  Feel good about the small progress, because it is you making the change, leading your way. Still with my running example, many times I woke up to zero energy in my body, but still managed to get out of bed and change into my sport clothes, stretch, relax, contemplate dawn, get breakfast ready.  Yes, I failed running, but I consider this a small victory since I'm bringing routine and positive thinking to my mind. The next morning I will do it.

Other examples of sacrifices regarding running are the recreational drinks and food. As soon as you start with endurance, beating your records and overcoming your daily pain in the legs, you realize how bad the beer affects you, how a tough night will chop to pieces your pace the next day, and how fast food will slow down your recovery time. As difficult and unlikely as saying "I'm not going to drink watching the match, or during the party this weekend", it is a decision to face and choose in order to become an achiever.

Finally, make sure you understand time is required for success, and you have every day as a new opportunity to make progress and evolve into your better self. Nevertheless, you have to be conscious about it. Learn what you need, overview yourself to know what to improve, and work on it everyday.

Now I want to ask you: What is your sacrifice? what are you willing to give up for your goals, dreams and objectives? Let me know in the comments section below, maybe we celebrate together while looking back with joy at our previous selves.