Journey to success is not a sprint; it’s a marathon!
Overnight success — I think people use this term in a wrong sense. Success does not come overnight. Yes, I do agree to the fact that things can click in an instant and you may create something revolutionary. But, everyone forgets the hard work put behind reaching there. The long hard working hours you’ve spent to be in this place.
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People who daydream about overnight success live in a fallacy. Journey to success is not a 100 meter sprint. It’s a marathon for which you have to prepare. The preparation continues for days, weeks and years until you achieve that. And, it does not stop even there. The race continues forever — if you want to sustain that success.
So, how do you prepare for this marathon? I’d love to share some pointers here -
Train hard
Train like an athlete, eat like a nutritionist, sleep like a baby and succeed like a champion! If you can strike the balance between these three facets of life, then success is just a few small steps away.
It all begins with what you want to achieve in your life. Like the boxing great Muhammad Ali used to say,” I hated every minute of training but I said don’t quit. Suffer now and live the rest of your life as a champion.” So, set a goal and begin to train hard.
Slow, but steady
The hare and the tortoise race — we all are familiar with it. Yes, there is a school of thought that supports speed — move fast and break things. But, I’m an advocate of starting slow and then picking up the pace when you know you are moving on the right track. You don’t start your car straight away in the fourth gear. Do you?
Constant efforts will always pay in the longer. A short, powerful burst of energy can take you high for an instant. But, it is not sustainable. If you want to sustain the success, you need to take small steps and scale up towards bigger endeavors. In the end, slow and steady will win the race, even today!
Gift yourself a comfortable pair of shoes
You cannot wrangle everything on your own. You need a support system. That support is your team. You must have collaborators, subject matter experts. The people who can work with you and help you achieve your goal.
So, either search for a community and be part of it. Or, build one where you can collaborate with like minded people. As they if you want to go fast go alone, if you want to go far go together. And, I am sure you would like to go far and not just fast!
Know when to take breaks
Breaks are important — or else you will burnout. You need to work hard to achieve success. At the same time, you’ve got to be smart enough to realize that you need a break. It is quite normal to receive some setbacks.
You cannot do everything right the first time. There will be times in your journey when things will be going south. That’s when you need to stop, analyze what’s going wrong and change the plan. Knowing that things are going not as planned, and still continuing on the same path won’t be a smart idea.
Stay hydrated
If you dehydrate your body during the race, can you continue to move further? The answer is a no brainer — definitely not! Knowledge is the fuel that drive your body and mind forward when you are running this marathon. So, you must stay hydrated. Keep feeding your mind the latest knowledge, technical skills and everything else.
Your mind can stagnate, if you do not upgrade the knowledge. So keep your pace up with the changing times, keep feeding your brain with new things and move forward!
And, at the end of it if you can have a cheer-leading squad to boost your morale, it can be an added bonus. Not in literal sense that is! What I mean here is to surround yourself with positive people. Your family and friends, who can motivate you to never give up. It can be a powerful factor to keep you going strong, and strive for more in whatever you want to achieve in life.
I’m sure you will now be able to relate to the fact that journey to success is not a sprint, but a marathon. And, these pointers can help you to keep running and win this race!
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Vartika Kashyap is a seasoned marketing professional who is an expert in digital marketing and entrepreneurship. She currently runs the marketing team at ProofHub — a project management software for teams of all sizes. Connect with Vartika on LinkedIn, Medium and Twitter.
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