In this episode, we discuss the importance of working past difficulties, instead of wishing they were easier.
Full Transcript
Hi Everyone, welcome to the You’re Daily Cup of Joe Podcast, with your host Joe Bautista. In this podcast, my goal is to give you quick lessons on how to grow yourself physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually so you can have better careers, better relationships, and better personal finances.
I’m also the author of the book “More You Know, More You Grow: How to Get Better Every Day”. In this book, I wrote down over 30 tips to help you grow in those four cornerstones. I’m also the founder of Grow With Joe, where I combine self-development coaching and financial planning for Latino Professionals.
In today’s episode we’re are going to talk about the Jim Rohn quote, “Don’t wish it was easier, wish you were better.” I love this quote because it reminds me that things just happen easily, I have to work for them. I don’t think it would be nice if everything was easy. I would get too bored and then that can cause me to get into destructive behavior.
I also find it really rewards to work on something challenging for a while until I’m able to finish it or solve it. Like writing my first book. It took me 18 months to write it, edit it, and get it published, and it was a challenge at times but I was able to produce a book and now I can say I’m an author.
Plus if everything was easy for everybody else too, what kind of world would we have? I don’t think it would be a very good one. Challenges are what causes people to go out and create new things. It’s the reason we have electricity, vaccines, the internet, and so many other inventions that benefit society.
People saw a problem that was difficult to overcome and they took up the hard problem to try to solve it. If everything was easy, then people wouldn’t create anything because they’re fine. When you’re fine, you’re just going to maintain the status quo.
There is a great book called Good to Great by Jim Collins and the biggest lesson I got from the book is that the enemy of great is not bad, it’s good because if you’re satisfied with good, you’ll never become great. If you never strive for greatness though, you’ll just fade away eventually like all the other mediocre companies that Jim Collins wrote about in his book
I know that I can’t take it easy and that I got to work on myself to get better. I go to take care of my health, read books to learn new things to help me out, put in the work that other people won’t do, and have tough conversations. When I’m going through tough times, I just tell myself that this is making me stronger and will be able to handle even big problems in the future.
If I’m not good enough to make it through, I’m going to figure out a way to make it through by getting better. I might have to read a book, watch a video, reach out to a professional or just keep trying until I get better.
I also don’t want it easier for other people because I think it creates bad habits where people become complacent and complacency creates entitlement, and entitlement causes tension. If everyone is working hard on becoming better, then the world will be such a better place. An A player is 32 times better than a B player but to become an A player, you have to work on becoming better.
Being better can be more than your skills, it can also be your attitude. No one wants to work with folks with a poor attitude and one that feels entitled. When everyone is pulling their weight, then it makes it easier on everyone. Not everyone might not be on the same level, but as long as everyone is working on getting better, then what else can you ask for. We can’t expect people to go from a C player to A player overnight, but they should be moving in that direction every day.
Another thing to consider about everything is easy for you, it would have to be easy for everyone else. What makes one individual more special than another person where they didn’t have to do any of the work and reap all of the rewards? There is nothing. We live in a competitive but collaborative society. We can help each other out but we are still trying to accumulate different things. We only have a finite amount of resources on this planet, and as of right now, there are not enough resources on this planet to give everyone a high standard of living. I remember in high school, I was taught that we would need four planet earths if everyone on the planet was to have the same standard of living as the US.
We are making good strides in raising people from poverty and people are working hard problems to ensure that the world is getting better but there is still a lot of work to do. Instead of wishing it was easier, go out and make it better. It’s not going to change on its own, it will only get better through getting better as a society and it starts with the individual first.
When you wish it was easier, you’re assuming it is someone else’s problem but we need to assume the problem is ours. By doing that, we will take ownership of the problem and if we do that then we’ll realize that we need to become better as a person to solve that problem. This is the approach that I take and I’m going to make things that I deem a problem, my problem and work on a solution to solve them. This then requires me to get better and actually get better not just wish that I’m going to get better. Life is about action, and the more positive action you can take, the better your life is going to be.
That’s it for today’s episode, to summarize it, don’t wish things were easier, wish you were better but wishes don’t come true. You have to be intentional about getting better. It’s going to be hard at times and you might want to quit, but if you want to reach your full potential in life you just have to grind it out. If you need a break, take a break but don’t take one longer than you have to. Work on solving problems in this world, and if everyone did this, then the world will be a much better place to live in.
To get a free copy of my book “More You Know, More You Grow: How to get better every day” just go to my website growwithjoe.me/book and just pay for shipping and handling.
I have a quiz on my website that grades your inner circle, so if you want to find out if your inner circle is an A, B, C, D, or F, you can take that quiz at growwithjoe.me/quiz
I’m also trying to do a feedback Friday episode, so if you have a question that you would like to have my answer on the air, just e-mail me at [email protected]
I’m also on Instagram at Grow With Joe and Facebook just look up Grow With Joe
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Thanks for joining me today and remember if you go with Joe, you can grow with Joe, cause Joe knows Dough.
*Music outro
