7 Not So Obvious Sacrifices You Need To Make Now
Chasing your goals is no easy task. It’s a lot of work and a lot of effort for a long period of time.
In most cases, your goals can spread over your whole life. Slowly building and growing as you reach certain milestones along the way.
But it’s a constant uphill battle with new walls popping up every day.
Your goals keep you on your toes. They keep you alert. They bring excitement and challenge to your life.
If you’ve been chasing your goals for some time then you’d be no stranger to sacrifice. You cannot reach your goals without changing who you are and this involves a lot of sacrifices.
Setting a goal is great but it means nothing without action and included in this action action, is sacrifice.
Since 2017, I’ve been relentlessly chasing my goals and learning hundreds of important lessons along the way. One of which is how much sacrifice is really needed.
Learning these, I wanted to put a list together of the most important. Some of the sacrifices are straight up obvious but the others, you wouldn’t expect.
8 sacrifices that need to be made if you want to reach your goals.
1. Social Life
I want to start off with a couple of obvious ones that people know about but either choose to ignore or feel they are appropriately ‘managing’.
Before you get defensive, I’m not saying that you should completely give it up. In fact, I’ll be the first to tell you not to, as I’ve seen first hand what completely giving up any fun activities can really do.
Last year, I worked non-stop for 365 days. A full year. I never took a day off from working and eventually it caught up. I burnt out and I went backwards.
But no one, no matter how big their week was, needs to spend a whole weekend drunk off their brain making a fool of themselves.
Manage your social life.
As a rule of thumb, you need one day off a week.
Any more than that and you’re wasting valuable time that could be spent making progress but that one day is completely necessary and needed to recharge.
2. Social Media
I’m a huge advocate of social media. It’s a great way to build a personal brand and build a following, but it also has a dark side.
Aimlessly scrolling through pointless shit on newsfeeds is a huge waste of time.
I can think back to times when I would quickly check my news feed, then I’d look up and 20 minutes had passed and I had done nothing but look at crap.
If you’re not using social media as part of your plan to reach your goals, get off it.
If you are, use it as part of your goals, nothing else.
3. Toxic People
The life suckers. The black clouds. The negative people.
They add no value to you and you need to get rid of them. There is no exception.
All they do is hold you back and make you feel bad for wanting to do something more in life.
4. The ‘I wish’ Mindset
This is so common among people and is a huge destroyer of ever reaching your goals.
If you’re going to chase your goals, you need to stop wishing.
Wishing about the things you want.
Wishing about the things others have, that you want.
Whatever you wish you had, it’s time to turn it into a need.
A goal.
Go out and get whatever you wish you had. It may take a year, 3 years, 5 years, your whole life but I can guarantee you that you’ll never get it sitting on your ass, wishing.
5. Regret
Everybody’s made mistakes and everyone has done something they’re not proud of.
I have. Multiple times.
Just read a couple of my other articles and you’ll see just how many mistakes I’ve made.
From making my chronic illness worse, from burning myself out to quitting things way to early (plus about a million other things), I’ve made them all and I don’t regret a single one.
They’ve all made me who I am and shown me what I’m capable of.
It’s the same with you.
Don’t regret. Learn.
6. Netflix
Another obvious one to throw at you but I want you to think further than Netflix. I want you to think TV in general.
You will never get anything good out of binge-watching TV.
Do yourself a favour and read books instead.
7. Doubt
Don’t ever doubt yourself. That’s other people’s job.
You need to believe in yourself and believe you can reach your goals. You need to make sacrifices around doubt.
Doubt will hold you back from doing anything great.
I’ve been there a few times in my life. I should have gone all out but only half committed and because of my lack of commitment, I failed.
You have to put in your all and the only way to do that is to get rid of any doubt you may have.
Bonus — The Ability To Quit
The second you chose to relentlessly chase your goals is the second you give up the option to quit.
It’s going to be a long journey. It will be hard and you’ll want to give up but the second you quit is the second you decide you never want to reach your goals.
It’s the only way that guarantees failure and it’s another of the sacrifices you need to make.
