Putting your head down and doing the work required to achieve your dream is going to be hard work. If you’re like me, you’ll have 101 excuses why you have another task you need to do.

“I would make a video today, but I have to pack for my holiday.”

“I’d like to write a blog post about fear, but I have to get ready for my speech on Tuesday.”

There always seems to be a distraction when it comes to putting in the work. Our brains are experts at lying to ourself so that we can experience more pleasure. Instead of putting off doing the daily tasks we need to be successful, we need to make them part of our routine like brushing our teeth or getting changed.

Below are the 5 things to remember about the pursuit of success:

1. Hard work is time-consuming

Pursuing success takes all the time you have, and there is always more to do. Training for sport doesn’t get easier it get’s harder. The more you move up in the ranks of your sport the harder you have to train. To be the best in the world at something you have to outwork all of your competitors.

While you’re relaxing, someone in another country is training harder than you because they want it more and are prepared to work for it. Even when you feel like it’s time to reward yourself what you really should be doing is training even harder.

Success is not some mythical far away land; it’s lying right in front of you. All you have to do is be prepared to put the work in and put aside the hours to practice and become stronger at your craft. While you’re putting in the hours, you’ll see that a lot of success is not fun at all.

To get to the fun parts you have to go through the struggle and push through your barriers. Only then, will you get to enjoy all best parts of success. You’ll need every piece of you to visualise what it will be like to stand on stage after you have wowed the world with your unique skill. This moment is reserved for the very best people.

2. Success is all about tedious repetition

You will never be successful at something unless you are okay with dealing with the dull and boring tasks that come with the pursuit of success. Most of what you need to do to be successful is boring as hell and every day is not going to be rosy.

“You’re going to have to battle through the blizzard if you want to get to the sunset”

On some days it’s going to feel like the snow is getting thicker and thicker and it’s even harder to walk than the day before. Your friends are going to be out partying without you, and you’re going to need to be disciplined enough to sit your ass down and study the greats.

You’ll have hundreds of hours of reading to do, and you’ll need to watch every video on the Internet about your craft. There are going to be more lows than you’re used to handling and that’s how you’ll know you are pursuing success. You can’t honestly tell me you thought success was always exciting now can you?

When you see someone become successful it’s easy to think that the journey was tough but fun at the same time. It wasn’t. You weren’t in that successful person’s room each night when they felt like giving up or trying some other pursuit.

You weren’t there when their wife left them, or their pursuit of success made everyone around them turn against them. Are you willing to sacrifice everything you have including being loved in the short term to pursue success?

3. Small steps make you feel like you’re going nowhere

It’s not uncommon to believe that success is made up of a few giant steps that take an enormous amount of courage to overcome the initial fear. Success is quite the opposite. While there will be some giant steps you will need to take, most of the road will be made up of small steps.

The worst part about small steps is that you can take thousands of them and still feel like you’ve gotten nowhere. It’s easy to get bored when all you’re doing each day is taking lots of little steps. As humans, we want progress and that comes through taking big steps, not small ones.

The problem is that success is all about the small steps. The aim is to take a few more positive steps each day than you did the day before. Over time you will build up massive momentum that will give you the energy to become unstoppable at your craft.

For now, though, it’s time to get used to the small steps and be okay with not getting instant gratification. Know that every small step you take will eventually add up. You can reach the top you just need to be patient.

4. Focusing is how you achieve the impossible

To pursue success in any form, you will need to get excellent at focusing. Putting equal amounts of your time and energy into many different areas is a recipe for failure. You need to work on focusing all of your time on one craft that you want to be world-class at.

If you’ve ever met an Olympic champion, you’ll notice that they are incredibly focused on the task at hand. If you ask them what they want, they’ll be able to outline it in very boring detail that will put you to sleep.

“Get clear about what you want and then focus like crazy to achieve it no matter what life throws at you”

5. Your dream is not your hobby it’s your life (act like it)

Don’t mistake your dream for your hobby. The pursuit of success is about spending time on your dream and not dabbling in hobbies. Hobbies are things that you do half-assed and part time. Your dream is a full time 24/7 pursuit that you are willing to die for.

Your dream is your entire life, and it’s what you are going to be remembered for. You will only ever receive mediocre results if you treat your craft like a hobby that you hope to be good at some day. Get specific around your timeframes and put some framework around what’s non-negotiable for you.

Set a daily schedule of what you are going to achieve towards your dream and then turn the TV off, put your head down, and start doing the “doing.” These words I’m writing to you don’t write themselves. These words require me to be focused and inspired full time.

If I put in a half-assed effort giving you advice, then you would go to some other website and find someone else who gives a damn about you. I’m here writing early in the morning instead of sleeping because I care about your success. I want you to look at yourself in the mirror and ask yourself, “Are you willing to do the same? Are you willing to give it all you’ve got?”

What do you think it takes to be successful? Let me know on my website timdenning.net or my Facebook.