A student had gone to an advisor for help about finding work/advice about where to go in life. Now, I didn't hear the whole conversation, I only heard one sentence of what the advisor said before I walked out of the door, but she said:
"All those people out there are shooting for the stars straight away..."
I'm going to assume (which I know is a very bad thing to do, but bear with me) that she was trying to tell the student to work her way up to whatever she wants to be.
It's a running theme throughout our college - we always try to convey to students that college is a stepping stone to wherever they want to go. We can't immediately get to where it is we want to be - we have to work our way up to it.
I don't know why, but I've been thinking about that one sentence all day. Lately, I've been putting off doing things; telling myself I don't have enough time, or enough energy, or I have to focus on something else first. But really, it's all excuses.
How can I expect to get to where I want to be, if I don't start putting the effort in? How am I any different to the students around me, who want the world on a plate and expect to get something for nothing, if I somehow just expect success to come to me? (Note: not all students are like that - with some of them, I can't believe how much they achieve in one day!)
I'm trying not to be negative when I see people's successes on social media - I don't want to be that person anymore - but lately, I have caught the green-eyed monster rearing it's ugly head once again. But the thing is, the people's whose posts I'm seeing (going on amazing holidays, have their articles featured in magazines, getting promotions etc) - they've all put the hard work in first. They haven't sat around wishing for something in their life to change, and dreaming of the day they could do X,Y Z - they've actually gone out there and done something about it.
Everyone has the potential to be whatever they want to be - we just have to take that first step, and then keep going. We might not land among the stars first time, but we'll be a damn sight closer to them.
Do you think hard work leads to success? Do you have any stories of your road to success, or the steps you've taken to start your own journey?
