Everything worthwhile is Uphill.

The road to success is not straight. There is a curve called Failure, a loop called Confusion, speed bumps called Friends, red lights called Enemies, caution lights called Family. You will have flat tires called Jobs, but if you have a spare called Determination, an engine called Perserverance, a driver called Will Power, you will make it to a place called Success.

Everything worthwhile is uphill, the climb is steep, the journey is the reward, and success is not guaranteed, but the struggle is. To achieve any goal worth achieving, you must sacrifice, endure, persevere, commit and relentlessly execute. To climb uphill is usually challenging as it requires asserting energy and persisting hence most of us would not attempt the climb. Everything worthwhile in life takes time; overnight success takes approximately ten years or 10,000 hours of relentless execution of your goals. There are three types of people: Those in the game, on the sideline, and those in the stands watching. The climb uphill will require everything in you; you must dig deep inside to reach the summit successfully.

“You can always tell when you are on the road to success; it’s uphill all the way.” – Paul Harvey

As someone that has run 20+ marathons in 10+ cities, I can attest to what is required to reach the summit, climb uphill, or ultimately reach the finish line. Every marathon is different; many factors can determine how well you finish, such as the weather, clothing, preparation, stamina, the running course, hydration etc. The hilliest marathon I have ever done is the Emera Blue Nose Marathon, Halifax, Nova Scotia; it was a very uphill running course. It was the most challenging marathon I have run because of the rollercoaster, but I enjoyed it. One of the reasons that I love running marathons is the similarities between running the 26 miles and life itself.

Success is a result of taking small actions consistently in the right direction daily.

Like the marathon in life, the farther you get in your journey, the fewer people you see around. When you start a marathon, everyone starts at the same time; just like life itself, we all have the same 24 hours; the difference between high achievers and non-achievers is how they choose to use their time. When you start in a marathon, the cheers are loudest at the start, but when you get to mile 20 onwards, there are fewer cheers as your preparation and stamina keep you going from there – it is uphill all the way.

You can map out a light plan or a life plan, but when the action starts, it may not go the way you planned, and you’re down to the reflexes you developed in training. That’s where roadwork shows – the training you did in the dark of the morning will show when you’re under the bright lights. – Joe Frazier

Elon Musk is the founder, CEO, and chief engineer of SpaceX; angel investor, CEO and product architect of Tesla, Inc.; owner and CTO of Twitter; founder of the Boring Company; co-founder of Neuralink and OpenAI; and president of the philanthropic Musk Foundation. According to Forbes, Musk is the second richest man in the world, with a net worth of $236.5B. If you look at what Musk has achieved in his lifetime with multiple companies and wealth, it seems he has the Midas touch, but he did not start like this. Musk had to hustle, grind, and work extremely hard to get to where he is. In his 2014 commencement speech to the Undergraduate graduating students of the USC Marshall School of Business¹, musk advised, “You need to work extremely hard.”

The first thing is – you need to work. Depending upon how well you want to do, and particularly if you’re starting a company, you need to work super hard. So what does super hard mean?

Well, when my brother and I were starting our first company instead of getting an apartment we just rented a small office and we slept on the couch; We showered at the YMCA, and we were so hard up we had just one computer, so the website was up during the day and I was coding at night, seven days a week, all the time. I briefly had a girlfriend during that period and in order to be with me she had to sleep in the office. So work hard, like, every waking hour.

That’s the thing I would say – particularly if you’re starting a company. If you do the simple math, say that someone else is working 50 hours and you’re working 100, you’ll get twice as much done in the course of a year as the other company.”

I love how psychologist and military veteran Dr. Gordon Livingston puts it in his book, Too Soon Old, Too Late Smart: Thirty True Things You Need to Know Now ²; he observed: “Only bad things happen quickly.“

When we think about the things that alter our lives in a moment, nearly all of them are bad: phone calls in the night, accidents, loss of jobs or loved ones, conversations with doctors bearing awful news. In fact, apart from a last-second touchdown, unexpected inheritance, winning the lottery, or a visitation from God, it is hard to imagine sudden good news. Virtually all the happiness-producing processes in our lives take time, usually a long time: learning new things, changing old behaviors, building satisfying relationships, raising children. This is why patience and determination are among life’s primary virtues.

Virtually all the happiness-producing processes in our lives take time, usually a long time: learning new things, changing old behaviors, building satisfying relationships, raising children.

Everything you want, everything you desire to achieve, everything you want to receive—is uphill. The problem is that most of us have uphill dreams but downhill habits. Downhill is easy. It has no requirements. It doesn’t take any effort. It’s like feeling the effect of gravity, which continually pulls us down. You can slide downhill—in your sleep. A downhill lifestyle is characterized by unintentionality, complacency, inconsistency, and excuses. There is no big-picture vision for the future, only instant gratification.

Uphill is hard. Moving uphill requires intentionality, energy, determination, hard work, and consistency. It requires you to keep an eye on the big picture, be determined, demonstrate character, and put in the time. The right thing to do and the hard thing to do are usually the same thing. ³

Self-Discipline is the difference between good intentions and good actions, temporary success and sustained success.

The most respected men and women in history have had to climb uphill despite the challenges that they faced in their lifetime. Against all odds, the self-doubt, the naysayers, critics and skeptics, they stood through with courage and conviction to achieve their goal.

“Cripple [a man], and you have Sir Walter Scott. Lock him in prison and you have John Bunyan. Bury him in the snows of Valley Forge and you have George Washington. Raise him in poverty and you have Abraham Lincoln. Strike him down with infantile paralysis and he be- comes Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Burn him so severely that doctors say he will never walk again and you have Glen Cunningham, who set the world’s record in 1934 for the outdoor mile. Deafen him and you’ll have Ludwig van Beethoven. Call him a slow learner, retarded, and write him off as uneducatable and you have Albert Einstein.” ⁴

American sportswriter Grantland Rice’s poem “The Great Competitor” is a testament to what it takes to be a winner in sports and life. He writes:

Beyond the winning and the goal,
beyond the glory and the fame,
He feels the flame within his soul,
born of the spirit of the game,
And where the barriers may wait,
built up by the opposing Gods,
He finds a thrill in bucking fate
and riding down the endless odds.

Where others wither in the fire
or fall below some raw mishap,
Where others lag behind or tire
and break beneath the handicap,
He finds a new and deeper thrill
to take him on the uphill spin,
Because the test is greater still,
and something he can revel in.

Where others lag behind or tire and break beneath the handicap, He finds a new and deeper thrill to take him on the uphill spin, Because the test is greater still, and something he can revel in.

Meditation

Daily Calm with Tamara Levitt – Sangha
Meditation is a solo activity, that solitude can be a gift; we can practice on our schedule day or night. Sangha (Sanskrit for assembly or community), in the Buddhist tradition, Sangha originally refers to the group of monks who showed each other love, support and encouragement.

Daily Jay with Jay Shetty – Take Stock

Be wary of autopilot behaviour as a result of your routines and regimens. Ask yourself: Am I enjoying it, or is it challenging me? When we take stock, we ask ourselves directly or unequivocally – Do I care for this? How does it make me feel? Is this worth my time or energy?
We can remove it when we get crystal clear on what we don’t like or not serving us. Which makes more time for what we do enjoy and benefit from.