Today is veterans today here in the United States. It is a day to honor our veterans and those who have defended our country and protected our citizens. The thing that I admire and respect the most about these veterans is all the sacrifices they have made.
Being a solider requires many sacrifices. You have to give up a lot of your youth. These veterans could have spent their time like many other people. They could have gone to all the parties or the vacations or many of the other experiences that young adults indulge in. But they chose to defend our freedom and fight for the country that we have the privilege of living in. Sure, they missed out on some fun stuff, but that wasn’t as important to them as the right to be an American hero. They understood that you have to make sacrifices to do the things that were important to them.
Unfortunately, this mentality that all veterans have has not trickled down into society. Sacrifice shouldn’t just be a word we associate with the military. It should be a word that all people who have a purpose to fulfill should be using. No matter what your purpose is.
People want to live lavishly and attain these big aspirational goals. They fail to remember that you have to make sacrifices in order to achieve them. It is great to have big goals, I will never say it is not. The problem is that so many people don’t want to make the necessary sacrifices. They want to run a million dollar business, or be a serial entrepreneur, or be the best rapper, or athlete. These are hard things to do, very few people ever succeed at them.
It is almost impossible to achieve these ambitious goals while trying to live a normal life. A life that your friends or those around you live. Standing out is hard when you try to fit in. You cannot be great and achieve something that most others can’t if you are doing what everyone around you is doing. You should be extremely ambitious and have aspirational goals, but you won’t get them if you don’t make sacrifices. For any type of gain, whether that be in your career, personal life, or financially, you have to give something up. You must make sacrifices in order to make your dreams happen. Your actions have to be different if you want your results to be different.
This means you cannot go to the club every weekend or to the bar every night. The problem is people don’t want to miss out on the fun. What they don’t realize is, your not missing out on anything. The ones going to the club and bars all the time are missing out. They are missing out on time for productivity, personal development, career development, and skill development. If you have a dream or a purpose you are working towards, the constant club and bar visits are only delaying that dream. You shouldn’t even feel like you are missing out because you are committed to fulfilling your purpose.
So if you ever feel like you are missing out because you need to work on fulfilling your dream. Think about the veterans. Think about all the things they missed out on because they had a more meaningful purpose to fulfill. You have to make sacrifices to be the person you want to be and do the things you want to do.
The Rolling J / Jonathan McClure
Previous J of the day – https://therollingj.net/j-of-the-day-remove-your-limiting-beliefs/
LinkedIn profile – https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathan-mcclure-0594aa17b/
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