Are You Hungry Enough?

This episode is the 6th and final installment of the series on factors preventing you from achieving what you want in life. In this episode, we are going to recap the last five episodes, answer the question: Are you hungry enough? 

If you are hungry enough, you can overcome roadblocks like the ones mention in this series, learning a new skill, gathering your resources, or simply trying to get beyond feeling stuck.

Transcript

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Are You Hungry Enough?

Welcome to episode 8 and the 6th and final installment of the series on factors preventing you from achieving what you want in life. In this episode, we are going to recap the last five episodes, answer the question: Are you hungry enough? Share more about our self-development toolbox portal. In episode 7, I mention I would share the link to be notified when the portal goes live, so stay tune, I will share it with you before the end of this episode. Let start off by recapping the series. 

Here we go

When I started the series, I mention I wanted to delve into why some people achieve their goals and others don’t. Because of internal and external factors, most people don’t achieve their goals or abandon them before giving them a fair chance. I wanted to explored the reasons why and concluded there are internal and external factors that contribute to why. I realize the internal factors outweigh the external ones because I believe while the external ones can affect us, what’s happening inside of us is so much more powerful and have a tendency to affect many of us negatively and keep us from achieving what we want in life.

Let’s recap the internal factors I talked about these past few weeks.

The first one was self doubt, a trait a lot of us share. When we doubt ourselves, it’s so easy to not believe in ourselves and what we are capable of. What I hope you took away from the first installment is that with self-compassion and determination, you can overcome your doubts.

It’s also important to realize that self doubt is normal. What’s not is when you allow it to dictate what you do or don’t do.

Here are two more takeaways from the episode. That self-doubt can keep you grounded if we normalize it. That regardless of your doubts, the realization that it’s your life, and you need to, as they say, take the bull by the horn and lead it in the direction you want.

You need to be the victor in your own life, regardless of your doubts.

In the second installment, I talked about fear. It actually goes hand-in-hand with self-doubt because fear directly results from doubts. What many of us don’t realize with fear is that it’s also a protective instinct or emotions that’s trying to keep us safe.

One way we deal with it is to realize that it’s up to us to decide how we should act despite our fears. 

I know how hard it is to overcome fear. It is, after all, an emotion that requires effort to put into perspective. But if we can move beyond our fears, it would be one less roadblock standing in the way of achieving the things we want in life.

What I hope you took from the second installment is that while fear is doing its job of keeping you safe, you can’t use it to avoid doing the hard work. And what I mean by that is the examples I shared in the second installment. Examples such as fear of failing, fear of what others may think. In the ends, it’s up to you to either choose to be a victim of fear or a student of it.

In the third installment of the series.

I talked about commitment. I’m going to switch things around a little from how I recapped the first two factors. By stating straight off that what I hope you took from this episode is that commitment is a muscle. 

What do you do with or want to do with muscles? Build it, strengthen it. Muscles need to be strong to support our body optimally. Your commitment needs to be strong to achieve your goals. Can you think of a better analogy for commitment?

You support your efforts to be committed by not making excuses and by taking life changing steps such as defining your goals, changing your mindset, and removing obstacles. 

It’s worth restating that without commitment, nothing you want to achieve can happen, regardless of the other internal factors standing in the way.

If you don’t commit to what you want, you won’t fight to end self-doubt and overcome your fears, or any of the other factors mentioned in this series.

In the fourth installment, I talked about perfectionism. It’s a self-impose standard we set for ourselves that can be unrealistic and, for many, unattainable.

It’s a roadblock that stands in the way of what you want to achieve because most people who are a victim to this trait cannot realize that in reality, they are not achieving excellence, in actually it’s keeping them from achieving their full potential or their goals.

When you set standards, that’s hard to reach, then criticize and condemn yourself when you don’t achieve them, it becomes impossible to make any progress regardless of what you are trying to accomplish.

What’s even more pervasive is that most don’t even realize what they are doing. In the end, they face the question of why. Why didn’t I accomplish my goal?

You have to be willing to step back and acknowledge this trait and one way I suggest doing this is to ask yourself key questions such as do you expect to always be in control of situations, or do you fear failing? 

Answering questions such as these and others I ask in Episode 6 honestly and reflecting on the unrealistic standards you set for yourself is a step towards overcoming a perfectionist mindset.

To put another way, what I hope you took from this installment is the realization that you need to reflect on your mindset and remember that some of the most talented achievers were not perfectionist. They didn’t start out being in control of their destiny, knowing where they would end up, or having a clear roadmap on how to get there. You shouldn’t either. You simply need to start and do your best.

Now on to the fifth installment. 

In this installment I talked about lack of focus, or distractions. An ability we all share. Who doesn’t let everyday events, issues, tasks get in the way? It is yet another factor worth mentioning in this series because most of us don’t realize how something that may seem so trivial can be a major factor in why you can’t achieve your goals.

I don’t need to mention again the different ways we allow ourselves to lose focus. I am sure if you think about it, you can acknowledge the many ways you are distracted daily. you already know what’s in your life that is intrusive. 

The question is, how are you dealing with it? What are you doing to reduce this roadblock? Because as you will eventually realize, those daily interruptions add up and the next thing you know days, weeks, go by and you haven’t a clue why you didn’t make stride toward your aim.

In the episode, I shared six tips for reducing distractions. The goal of these tips is to not only get you to realize that a certain amount of distraction is normal, but to be aware of the times you are losing focus and take steps towards reducing it. The tips I share in the episode aren’t just about showing you how to reduce distractions, but to incite you to think of your unique ways to decrease distractions and focus every day on achieving your goals.

Okay, so that was the recap. Now it’s time to answer the question, are you hungry enough?

I’m going to paraphrase a speech I recently listen to on YouTube by Tony Robbins called Stay Hungry. 

Here is the general idea of what he said:

I don’t care where you are today. I don’t care if you are totally broke. If you can find the hunger inside of you and you can remember you don’t need resources, you need resourcefulness that will get you to the resources, then anything you dream about, you can make real. 

When you apply what Tony Robbins said with the objectives of this series and the questions remain, are you hungry enough?

Let’s define what it is to be hungry

To be hungry is to be single-minded, determine to not give up. To pursue what you want with the determination and will of a bull moving towards its aim.

You are hungry if every single day you do something towards your goal. You work to improve if improvement is what’s needed. Find resources, if that’s what you need. You know nothing short of your complete commitment will make it happen.

Hunger also means thinking out-of-the-box. You think creatively when it’s needed and conservative when that’s needed. If accomplishing your aim requires being unorthodox, then so be it.

 Here is a different stance on what it is to be hungry:

You are hungry if you are confident

You are hungry if you are focused

You are hungry if you are motivated

You are hungry if you are working hard

You are hungry if you are determined

These are really obvious characteristics of what hunger is. But I want to tie hunger into the five factors I’ve spoken about in the last five weeks.

I personally don’t know anyone with dogged determination that has self-doubt. It’s not to say that they never are or were doubtful. They just know how to put it into perspective and move forward.

What about fear? How many people do you personally know who are ambitious, determine and work hard to achieve what they want to have fear?

The answer shouldn’t surprise you when I say all of them. Every successful person you personally know and read about, and emulate, has fears. You may not know it, or see it, but I guarantee that they have experienced it and some most likely still do.

What’s the difference between them and the person who isn’t achieving a thing because of fears?

The achievers, learned and know how to move beyond fear, to act despite fear, to not let it control their choices, their lives and the result they want. That is why they get to have the distinction of being called an achiever.

The non-achiever, on the other hand, is a different story, isn’t it? Do I really need to outline why they are non-achievers? Fear certainly is one of the reason.

Let talk about being hungry to achieve a goal and being committed to achieving a goal. 

I already talked about commitment being the one thing you need to achieve anything, regardless of the other factors mention in this series. Without commitment, not much else is possible. But is commitment of a goal the same thing as being hungry?

I would like to think so. Whether you are hungry or committed, you are proactively moving towards your objectives. Your hunger, your commitment is clear in what you do every day.

You have goals in place, a process to achieve the goals, still there is one thing that can derail you and that one thing can be an opposition to being hungry. A Perfectionist mindset.

I’ve already recapped perfectionism earlier, so I know I don’t need to share how such a mindset can derail you. I hope, though, that you see how having it, and being committed or being hungry can make achievement almost impossible.

I am ending this series by asking if you are hungry enough. There is a reason for that. It’s to help you realize that regardless of internal and external roadblocks, it comes down to your answer to this one simple question.

Are you hungry enough?

The fact is, self-doubt, fear, commitment, lack of focus can easily be the reason for not achieving what you want. In fact, you may have one or all of these factors to deal with in your life. However, the reality is there can be so many other factors stopping you from achieving what you want.

How you deal with these factors is the key. Maybe asking yourself this simple question each time you face an obstacle is also the key.

You can overcome any roadblock if you are hungry enough. You will deal with self-doubts if you are hungry enough. You will move past your fears if you are hungry enough. If you are hungry enough, you will reduce, and sometimes remove, the distractions. If you are hungry enough. It’s all up to you and the steps you take, whether overcoming roadblocks like the ones mention in this series, learning a new skill, gathering your resources, or simply trying to get beyond feeling stuck.

Before moving on to talk about the self-development toolbox and share the link I mention in episode 7, I want to share another quote with you. 

After listening to this series and probably any episode in the future, you may realize that I love quotes. I love them because they echo your thoughts, beliefs and ideas. Quotes are a perfect representation of what you want to communicate to the world.

I want to end this series by sharing one that represents what I wanted to share with this series. 

The author is anonymous. Let me share it:

I work hard because I am hungry. I am hungry because I have goals. Those goals are based on my dreams, and my dreams will soon become a reality. 

Pause a moment and reflect on those words. Those words are you and me, or anyone with goals they want to accomplish. This leads me to the last part of this episode. Telling you more about the self-development toolbox portal.

The SD Toolbox portal will be a gateway to the knowledge and resources you need for personal development. When I decided to call this resource a portal, I had to consider whether it will be an actual portal or just a membership site. I decided that calling it a portal is perfectly okay because the information that will be there will be updated when needed and will be a gateway to the knowledge you need to make the better choices, offer tools and guidance to help you accomplish your goals.

This portal is in its infancy stage, so you will have the distinction of seeing it develop into what I envision it will become. Shortly, I will publish a series on the commitment needed to achieve success, and this is where I will offer access to the portal. If you listened to Evolving Life and from this episode on, the link to the portal will be available in the show notes where you can register to get immediate access once the portal is live.

As I mention in episode 7, much of the content will be free. I will guarantee listeners of Evolving Life with free access for 6 months. All I ask is that you share your thoughts on the content there and offer suggestion on making the portal a better resource for others wanting to improve their lives. The link to register is fullrliving.com/sd-toolbox.

I hope this series helped you and anyone who can listen to it in the future to get one step closer to achieving what they want in life. I would love to hear your thought and comments. You can share them at fullrliving.com/community. Don’t forget to subscribe to Evolving Life and help me make this podcast a resource for anyone wanting to be motivated and achieve their best lives. Thanks for listening and join me next week for another episode.