When It Comes To Success, Old School Is Still The Only School.

Hard work.

Commitment.

Persistence.

Perseverance.

I’ve just described old school success in a nut shell.

No short cuts, half-ass efforts, occasional episodes of greatness, or success hacks to get you there faster, quicker, easier.

Just good ole’ fashion sweat, tears, and time. That’s old school success.

It seems people nowadays expect success faster and as easy as possible. Bad news… not going to happen.

If success was easy peasy, every single one of us would be successful, which would be awesome. Unfortunately, it doesn’t quite work that way. Each and every one of us must work for and earn our own success because chances are, it won’t be handed to us.

Nothing worth having comes easy.

There’s no denying that times have changed.

Regardless of all the advancements that have been made, whether it’s technological changes, social or economical, the necessary steps for success haven’t changed.

Hard Work. Commitment. Persistence. Perseverance. 

HARD WORK

Nothing can take the place of time and effort when it comes to success. There are no short cuts. We’re more than capable of achieving anything we set out to achieve so long as we recognize, understand, and accept that it will take hard work, lots of hard work over a period of unspecified time. The length of time is and should be irrelevant. If it’s important enough to you, time won’t matter. If you were promised everything you ever wanted but were told it would take you 5 years to attain instead of 2 years, would you say forget it and quit?

” I’ve always believed that if you put in the work, the results will come.”

~ Michael Jordan ~

COMMITMENT

To be successful at anything, regardless of what it is, we have to be willing to make a commitment to ourselves and to what it is we’re looking to achieve. A commitment that says, I will give it my absolute all. I will stay the course regardless of what obstacles and challenges come my way. I will make all necessary sacrifices along the way. I will be unwavering in my efforts and only when I have achieved what I have set out to achieve will I rest. That’s commitment. It’s not enough to “kind-of” commit to being successful. You’re either fully committed or you’re not.

“Commitment is what transforms a promise into reality.”

~ Abraham Lincoln ~

PERSISTENCE

We’ve all heard the phrase, if at first you don’t succeed, try again. Not succeeding initially is part of the process, part of the equation for all great success. The road to all success is paved with difficulties and opposition, you can count on it. You will be told many times over that you can’t, you’re crazy, not good enough, and wasting your time. Continue believing in yourself and all that’s possible when no one else does. Trusting yourself to keep going when everyone else is telling you to stop. Believing that your success is just a matter of “when” and not “if”, stopping at nothing to achieve it.

“We can do anything we want as long as we stick to it long enough.”

~ Helen Keller ~

PERSEVERANCE

A college degree. Losing 50 pounds. Paying off all debt. Just a few examples of perseverance. They all take hard work, commitment, being persistence in your efforts, and lastly perseverance, seeing it through. Perseverance is the light at the end of the tunnel. The pot at the end of the rainbow. Continuing on until achieving what you committed to achieve. Staying the course regardless of all potential difficulties and delays in getting there. Failure most often is inevitable on your way to success. Again, it’s part of the process.  It’s at this point where we must pick ourselves back up, learn from our failures, make adjustments, refocus on what we’ve committed to, and go for it again. It’s about falling down 9 times and getting up 10.

“Perseverance is not a long race; it is many short races one after the other.”

~ Walter Elliot ~

Applying Old School Success

HEALTH

If you’re looking to lose weight, tone up, lower your blood pressure or cholesterol, old school concepts are still the best here. Exercise regularly (4 times or more per week) consisting of cardiovascular (walking, running, climbing stairs, elliptical) and weight training. Weight training can simply be the basics (push ups, crunches, squats, lunges). No need for fancy exercise videos, equipment, apps, or gym memberships.

There’s literally thousands of different nutritional plans available online. I’ll make it easy and old school for you. Eat smaller meals, five times a day consisting of fruits, veggies, lean meats, grains and nuts, and lots of water while eliminating sweets and sugary drinks, pasta, bread, rice, and potatoes from your diet.

Simple? Yes. Easy? Yes and No. Effective? Very! Try it and see for yourself.

RELATIONSHIPS

If you want to connect more and build better, happier, more successful relationships with friends, family, or your significant other, here’s some old school ideas.  Try sitting down and talking with people without checking your phone every few minutes. Go to dinner with people, grab lunch or a coffee together and again, without checking your phone every few minutes. Exercise together, party, laugh, and drink together, take a trip together. Do all of these things without the social distractions that is your phone, iPad, email, work, or social media.

Spend quality, undistracted time with those who matter most to you. Just one more, communicate the old school way by calling and not just through email, texting, or Facebook.

BUSINESS

If I had a nickel for every time I came across a new product, service, seminar, or course that’s designed to have your new business up in running in no time, with little effort, little work, and making you six figures overnight, I think I’d seriously be a millionaire by now.

As I mentioned earlier, if success was that easy, every single person who set out to start a business would succeed. I really do wish this was the case but unfortunately it’s not. No course, seminar, product, or service will bring you immediate success and results. It may provide you with valuable information on how and where to get started and maybe even get you ahead of the game a bit, but success, real success comes after time, commitment, and effort has been applied day after day, failure after failure, day after day.

FINANCES

If you want to decrease your debt and/or increase your savings it’s simple; spend less than you make, live below your means, track every cent you spend, and invest in assets not liabilities. Simple stuff right? Debt calculators, consolidators, eBooks, and all different types of get-out-of-debt-quick courses are now available to you, it’s all new school. Nothing wrong with it except for the fact that it’s all unnecessary. As a buddy of mine Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, “an ounce of action is worth a ton of theory”. You can have all the latest and greatest strategies and techniques at your disposal but if you never take action and use any of it, you’re no better off than you were without them.

Message is this, take the old school techniques I mentioned above and apply action to them and you’ll be well on your way to eliminating debt and increasing your savings.

For clarification purposes, by no means is this post intended to discourage you, me, or anyone from taking action and striving for success. The purpose of my message it to make it abundantly clear that success isn’t easy, but most definitely achievable IF…

 We are willing to work hard, commit, persist, and persevere. 

OLD SCHOOL IS STILL THE BEST SCHOOL

The best feeling in the world is finally knowing you took a step in the right direction. A step towards the future where everything that you never thought was possible, is possible.

What are some of your own old school techniques or strategies you use in your day to day life? Which of the ones mentioned above can you most relate to? Please share your story and experiences with me in the comments below.

Featured Image: Colloseum