Your Reward Lies in Your Next Challenge

Success has many rewards. Walking in success feels great, but rewards last if only you look forward to your next challenge. You will agree with me that when you achieve a goal, when you are successful, you are happy and ecstatic in that moment, you feel like you have conquered the world, you feel over the moon. But as soon as the excitement subsides and reality creeps in, you begin to look for the next challenge to conquer. “ Successful people tend to become more successful because they are always thinking about their successes “ — Brian Tracy.

The desire to keep enjoying the rewards of your success gets more and more intense, as you achieve your set objectives and goals. The more you succeed the more happiness you enjoy. Seems to me that success brings with it a huge dose of happiness and joy. Those who enjoy a more successful life usually live a happy and fulfilling one. We derive our happiness from our success.

Notice that people who are usually complaining are those who are not working to be successful. They are waiting for success to come to them. The size of your success depends on the depth of your desire.

It is people who do not take action or have given up and think that they will be successful by just waiting and not doing anything about it. Success does not come easy, it takes smart work to achieve it. The more you work at being successful the closer you get at achieving your goals. The closer you get at achieving your success the more happiness you enjoy. I know that sometimes we go through trying moments.

Challenges are not permanent, they are temporal. Challenges are the way that leads to your success. Often times they open up new doors and new perspectives without which it could have been impossible or difficult to achieve our goals. They should not prevent you from accomplishing your destiny, rather they should propel you even more to achieve your desired results. If you want to enjoy the reward, you must push on and persist when faced with challenges.

Hard Work is not a Guarantee to Success

I know this may not sound or go very well with with many people but I just think that hard work is not a guarantee that you will succeed. Yes, its hard to be successful without hard work but it doesn’t guarantee success. However, it is one of the ways that will ensure your success. Am not discouraging you from working hard. I just want to make a point clear that smart hard work will surely get you the desired results. If you are to achieve your success you must definitely work hard but not only that you should do it smartly.

The following story is a comparison between hard work and smart work. Once upon a time there was a quint little village. It was a great place to live except for one problem. The village had no water unless it rained. To solve this problem once and for all. The village elders decided to putout to bid a contract to have water delivered to the village on a daily basis.

Two people volunteered to bid and take up the task, the elders awarded the contract to both of them, because it was felt that a little competition would help keep the prices lower and ensure a backup supply of water. The first of the two people who won the contract Ed immediately ran out. He bought two galvanised steel buckets and began to run back and forth along the trail to the lake which was a mile away. Ed immediately began making money as he laboured morning to dusk hauling water from the lake with his two buckets. He emptied them into the large holding concrete tank that the village had built.

Each morning he had to getup before the village awoke to make sure there is enough water for the village when they wanted it. It was hard work but he was very happy to be making money and for having one of the two exclusive contracts for this business.

The second winning contractor Bill, disappeared for a while, he was not seen for months, which made Ed even more happy since he had no competition. Ed was making all the money. Instead of buying two buckets to compete with Ed, Bill had written a business plan. He involved various people like, investors and managers and created a corporation. He retained six months later with a construction crew.

Within a year his team had built a large volume stainless steel pipe that connected the village to the lake. At the grant opening celebration Bill announced that his water would be 75% cheaper and that it was more cleaner. Bill knew about the about complaints of the quality of Ed’s water, he also announced that he could supply the commodity 24hrs a day 7 days a week. Ed could only deliver water on the weekdays as he did not work on weekends.

The village cheered and quickly ran for the faucet at the end of Bills line. In order for Ed to compete he immediately bought two more buckets lowered his charge by 75%, employed more people to haul water on a daily basis. Bill realised that if this village needed water then more villages needed it. He rewrote his business plan and expanded to other villages who quickly connected to his line. Bill could supply more volumes of water to more people at a cheap price and therefore, made more money than his competitor. I will end the story here. Now ask yourself who was smarter between Bill and Ed? Who would you rather be?

Recognise the Advantages of Planning

The above story about Bill and Ed brings out a few things that can be learned and applied to our daily lives. Firstly this is a story about solving a problem that was encountered by the village. Which I believe that our lives are meant to solve the problems that are faced by the world. Bill demonstrated the advantages of planning.

How we go about solving these challenges is largely determined by the way we think. That is why for me, the most important asset we have is our mind. Ed seems to have had a head start in solving the water crisis that was faced by the small village. Indeed he succeeded not until Bill came up with a much better plan and solution. I do not think Ed had a thorough thought about how he was going to provide the solution. His aim was probably just having the contract to earn him money.

For me Bill demonstrated that having a goal is not just good enough. We must take time to plan and start working our plan to achieve the intended target and this takes time. In as much as Bill offered a much better solution than Ed am sure he must have given it more thought before going ahead to implement it. Bill’s plan involved investors and managers. It took Bill more than a year before he started reaping from his labour.

Bill’s plan also demonstrates that in our life’s journey we need people who can add value to our lives. People who are going to help us achieve our goals. If you are planning to achieve your goals you need to identify the right people who are going to help you achieve your goals.

By Ed employing more people to haul water from the lake, he demonstrated a lack of learning. He refused to embrace change and instead of learning from the new technology of transporting water he stuck to his old methods. Very often in our lives we do not want to embrace change.

Conclusion

Personal development and growth is a mix of things. I believe that self growth does not come easy it takes time and requires us to take small steps everyday of our lives. If you want to enjoy your life you must always be looking forward to your next challenge. The reward of overcoming a challenge should always motivate you to looking forward to the next challenge for this is the cycle of life. Happiness is the highest level of success. Enjoy the fruits of your labour.

Originally published at https://www.insakanet.com on December 20, 2020.