“Great achievement is usually born of great sacrifice, and is never the result of selfishness.”
- Napoleon Hill
The dreaded “S” word. One cannot possibly talk about success without mentioning sacrifice. Progress is neither automatic nor inevitable, therefore sacrifice is one of the main ingredients for improvement. It is what separates the overcomers from the wishful-thinkers; the things that you are willing to do or forego that others are not.
In today’s world, very few people are willing to make the required sacrifices that virtually guarantee success. Sacrifice was once a sign of strength and nobility, but in today’s politically correct world, asking someone to sacrifice anything is looked upon as unfair and unacceptable.
We don’t want to sacrifice living in a larger home so that we can keep our mortgage payments under control. We don’t want to sacrifice getting a new car every three years in order to save money for wiser investments. We can’t imagine sacrificing the latest i-gadget that is on sale – we must have it now, no matter how much debt we accumulate. Our inability to control our consumer desires and sacrifice comforts can get us into financial and other types of trouble.
When we actively take the easy road with our choices, we end up with pleasure in the short term but pain in the long run. The saddest thing, is that it is easier for us to sacrifice for fleeting pleasures than it is to make the exact same type of sacrifice for something beneficial. For example, a student can sacrifice a night of sleep to watch an entire season of the latest mega-hit TV series, but finds it harder to sacrifice the same amount of time for study. This is because our sacrifices are a direct representation of what we value at that time, and our value system in general is wrongly prioritized.
The unwillingness to make sacrifices in life slows, or even blocks our success. It practically guarantees failure.
According to a study called, “Does watching TV make us happy,” published in the Journal of Economic Psychology, “heavy TV viewers, and in particular those with significant opportunity cost of time, report lower life satisfaction. Long TV hours are also linked to higher material aspirations and anxiety.”
We avoid thinking and working because of the pain connected to each. We unknowingly sacrifice – there’s that crazy word again – results and happiness in order to spare ourselves energy and pain. But if we would only choose the actions that require effort, simple, yet straightforward effort, it will bring us greater results and rewards – and even happiness – in life.
I’ll admit, I’d rather be playing a twenty-hour video game campaign or lying in my warm bed at 3:30 a.m., than sitting in my study and putting the final touches to my books and articles. But that would kill my soul. Writing, no matter how painful it can be at times, is a near-spiritual experience for me. Nothing, no matter how acutely enjoyable, can compare to the joy of a finished product, an improved skill, a life touched, or a person changed. The only way to achieve these long-term results is through short-term sacrifice.
How then, do we turn this crazy word back into the virtue it deserves to be? The first step is to choose to do it because we see the benefit in doing it.
As Harry Browne writes, “You must choose between the various alternatives in order to make the most of the time and energy we do have. We choose constantly in order to bring as much happiness as possible, while using up as little time and energy as possible.”
We must choose wisely and make the right sacrifices. This is one of the first steps to success. Listen, success is simple when you accept how difficult it will be. Once you acknowledge that success requires self-sacrifice, only then will you be prepared to take the action that improvement requires you to take.
Ironically, whenever a professional athlete is playing an important game, millions of college kids and grown men (and women) across the country will sacrifice their productivity and progress to plunk down in front of the tube for the duration of the match.
Some spectators will take the tournament so seriously they will have spent dozens of hours watching games and making bets on the results. But this will not get them anywhere in life. Unless, of course, they learn something about sacrifice from that athlete, and begin to apply that crazy word, that virtuous trait, the combination of skill development and discipline into their own lives.
When they do discover the virtue of sacrifice, only that will make their lives better and more meaningful. My challenge to you is to make one sacrifice for the next 30 days that can bring you greater rewards and success. What will it be? Can you sacrifice 15 minutes of television for skill development, study, or even exercise?