To be successful at just about anything, you have to be willing to do what other people are unwilling to do.

This goes for success as an athlete, success with your investments, success in business, success in getting fit, success in winning a street fight, etc.

Most people are unwilling to do the hard thing.  I know I’ve been guilty of it for years.

But, when I first started trading actively nearly 30 years ago, that was one of the first lessons I learned.

The first full blown trading strategy I ever learned was the Turtle Trading System taught by Richard Dennis back in the mid-1980’s to a group of people he dubbed “the Turtles.”

During their training, he told them repeatedly “do the hard thing.”

In their case, it meant buying a market when it was moving higher or getting out of a losing position quickly.  These are two things most investors are unwilling to do.

Most investors have the mindset of buying low and selling high, and they are unwilling to part with an investment that turns against them, because they are more interested in being right, then taking a small loss.

Athletics

When you study professional athletes, it is those who have talent AND work the hardest that usually achieve the greatest success.

Tiger Woods is arguably the greatest golfer we have ever seen.  It was obvious early on that he had immense talent.

However, he also worked on his game AND his fitness harder than anyone else.

Hall of Fame wide receiver Jerry Rice is another example.  Rice was known for an off-season training regimen that few of his peers followed, but enabled him to stay in the game much longer than the typical receiver.

Fitness

Over the last year I have been experimenting with my fitness and diet regimen.

I really wanted to see if I could get away with minimal changes to my diet.  I’ve never had trouble putting in a solid effort in my gym, but I am one of those people who loves food, and I have a massive sweet tooth.

While I did pretty well at controlling the volume of food and soda I consumed, and I worked out pretty hard, I had virtually no positive results.

Therefore, I changed things up a bit around Thanksgiving, and particularly since the New Year.

I’ve paid much more attention to my diet, and I’ve increased the intensity of my workouts.

I achieved immediate positive results, so I’ve been encouraged to stick with my plan.

To really get to where I want to go, I know I will have to tweak things some more, but I am at least doing the hard thing for now… I’ve eliminated most of the junk and sweets from my diet (except on cheat days).

Self Defense

Many people I know own a handgun, and have the attitude that the weapon will be their savior if they are ever confronted with a criminal assault.

The problem is, most never train with the weapon outside of an indoor firing range.

In other words, they are never stress tested with the weapon.

Most people don’t get the training necessary to deal effectively with a violent physical assault.  And those that do train some, have not developed the mindset that they will do what is necessary to WIN.

Most self defense training seems to be focused on the idea of survival, rather than winning.

Here’s the thing… in many cases, if you don’t win, you’re dead.  Therefore, the goal of survival was not achieved.

With this in mind, in order to win, your mindset needs to be similar to that of a caged wild animal.

You must be willing to punch, kick, claw, bite, gouge or use any weapon at your disposal to win a confrontation.

Business

We now live in a world where the government will simply shut down your business if it deems necessary.

Given that the government is filled with bureaucrats who’ve never worked in private enterprise, that’s a scary thought.  You are just a number to them.

At times, the government will also simply make it more difficult to succeed in your business.  We can always count on some new regulation to make it so.

You now know you are going to have to do things differently to ensure long term success in your business.

Working longer hours may not be the only solution.  You’re going to need to get more creative, and/or, learn a new skill.

Final Thoughts

We’ve all heard the cliche… nothing in life comes easy.

But, most people seem to want to do things the easy way.  Our politicians know this, which is why they are always proposing some sort of “free ride.”

The suggest that each new “free ride” can be paid for by “the rich.”

The gullible fail to understand that, eventually, we all pay… either with higher taxes, or a recession that costs people their jobs.

If you want to survive and win in this environment, it’s time for a change in mindset.  It’s time to be willing to do the hard thing.

Thanks for reading!