“If there is no struggle, there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom, and yet depreciate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing up the ground. They want rain without thunder and lightning. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its many waters. This struggle may be a moral one; or it may be a physical one; or it may be both moral and physical; but it must be a struggle. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will.”  Frederick Douglass

Recently, I made a post about those five deadly words! Do you know how many people have walked away from jobs, opportunities, marriages, families saying these words!  I want to know, who told you that?!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The worse advice comes from someone that lacks experience in that area! Check your facts.  People that do nothing always seem to know everything!  The minute you mention something you desire or aspire to do, they tell you how hard it is! Then they will go on and on about why they didn’t do it and all their failed attempts which usually aren’t attempts at all!

Despite the recounts of people who achieve greatness, there is still the notion that somehow, people have a secret or gain secretly. We would rather say that they had money or that they knew something magical that helped them to ascend to their level of greatness.  95% of the interviews or back stories of successful people describe how they overcame their moments of weakness, times of lack, limitations to accomplish greatness! Whether they fought poverty, abuse (mentality, physically, sexually or all 3), learning disabilities, lack of opportunities, slavery, jim-crow laws, segregation, etc.., the point there was always a barrier that stood between them and their dreams!  The difference between those who achieve and those who do not is their understanding of struggle!

When people discourage you from going down a path because it’s hard or difficult, your first move should be to remove them from your inner circle.  At that point, that person is no longer a ‘go to’ or one that you invite into your thoughts and plans. They have been demoted to finding out about you like the ‘outsiders’ by getting the ‘word on the street’.

Where ever there is a demand, there is power and where there is power there will be those competing for it! Entrepreneurs have power, when you have time, you have money! When you don’t manage your time, then you are lacking in money! To build a business, to turn your time into a financial living or improve your economic status is POWER! Ascending to any power is not without a fight! Today, I’m always concerned about those too passive to fight! There are far too many people afraid of any type of conflict and when one cannot face conflict they will never make a difference!

Building a solid marriage is a fight! YOU DIDN’T THINK IT WOULD BE?!!!!!!!! Me either! I had watched one too many princess movies and by the time, a real one, The Princess And The Frog, came to the screen I was already married and so I loved that movie because the characters were visibly flawed and that I could relate!  Millions are divorced, families split, children broken because somewhere one of them thought that love meant it would be easy and any work meant it was too hard! Bringing your entire level of crazy and sane and your spouse bringing their entire generation of crazy and sane together is HARD WORK! Add children, mortgage, jobs, co-workers, family members, opinions of others and last but not least; HIS AND YOUR THOUGHTS ON HOW IT SHOULD BE, into a marriage you are looking at work 365 days, 24/7!  There is power in families and good families come through strong marriages, once again where there is power, there will be a struggle over it!  The struggle means working hard to build and build again!

Frederick Douglass explains it well and to me the words require no explanation but for one to review them until a personal understanding is gained. The lessons for where one is headed, for your forward movement lie in the struggle!  Too often in an attempt to ‘feel better’ we miss the importance, the lessons learned and gained in the struggle!

INSTEAD OF THOSE FIVE DEADLY WORDS, UPGRADE YOUR THOUGHTS TO STRATEGIC THINKING!

IT’S NEVER TOO HARD, EITHER YOU WANT IT OR YOU DON’T

If you want it easy then you don’t want it!