True Rewards are Built

If I were to tell you that if you've jogged for 30 minutes today, you would lose 10 lbs immediately, would you do it? Heck yeah!

What if I told you that if you've jogged for 30 minutes everyday for 5 days, you would lose 10 lbs on the sixth day. Would you still jog? Well, it won't be as motivating as the first option, but yes, you would do it.

So...what if I were to tell you that if you've jogged for 30 minutes 5 days a week for one year, you would lose ALL of your excess weight, get toned up, lose your health problems, add 10 years to your life, and even get a new job. However, the catch is that you may not see any immediate results...and you may not see any results for a few months. Would you still jog?

Eh...that is where it gets tricky!

At first you would jog. You may see a couple of pounds lost in your first week. The next week, you drop only one pound. Then for the next two weeks, you see no results.

Then you start rationalizing that losing weight isn't all that important, that you should accept who you are, that God made all shapes and sizes...and that your current job isn't all that bad.

After the first month, you stopped jogging and resorted back to your old ways.

You see, it's easy to keep doing something if you always get a reward. Tell your kids that they could eat cake every time they clean their rooms, and they would always clean their rooms.

But reality doesn't work that way.
 

• You WON'T get rewarded every time you do something good.
• You WON'T see results every time you work out.
• You WON'T always get recognition for your work.
• You WON'T get a raise every time you come to work on time.
• You WON'T build muscle every time you lift weights.

True, lasting rewards are not immediate. These are rewards that you must BUILD UP over time, and when the right time comes, those rewards would come falling down on you like a mudslide...

If you don't know what a mudslide is, it's pretty bad.

There is one girl in my gym that I've been watching for about three years. When I first met her, she looked like a regular person. Nothing impressive. But I've noticed that she was lifting weights every time I was at the gym. But all that weight lifting didn't seem to make any difference in her.

Throughout the years, I really saw no physical changes in her. She still looked like a regular person.

Then recently, I saw her and thought, "Dang!" I almost didn't recognize her. She was ripped! And I was told that she competed in some bodybuilding contest and came, I think, second place for her age group!

Truly, it looked like she changed overnight. But of course, she didn't change overnight: what happened was that she changed very gradually. You wouldn't know that she was getting ripped unless you were paying attention. But when I saw her recently, I didn't have to look closely. I automatically saw her new physique!

But how did she get that physique? Simple: she kept working out consistently for a long period of time. Now, she is reaping the fruits of her labor.

That is how life works. You won't get a treat every time you work on your goal. You may go for quite a while before you see any big rewards. But as long as you're working on that goal, you WILL reap a harvest!

A fruit tree starts off as a seed. It takes TIME for that seed to sprout. It could take a year for that seed to look like a small tree. It would take another two or so years for that tree to grow over 6 feet tall. During this time, you may get a few fruit. But after 5 or so years, that tree is big enough to give you fruit that could last you a year. After 10 years, that tree will be well established, producing a TON of fruit, and that tree would last longer than you would.

True rewards are built with labor and patience. If you are not willing to participate in either, then you could forget about reaping a harvest. 

• Have 100 lbs to lose. Give yourself AT LEAST a year to lose it.
• Want to gain 10 lbs of muscle? Give yourself one to two years to do it.
• Want to run a successful business? Start small, have patience, be consistent, and give yourself at least a year to see any real results.

If you are fully convinced that you must wait for true rewards, then you won't stop pursuing your goal. You need to beat in your head that immediate rewards won't happen and that you must be patient for the REAL rewards to happen.

Don't get caught up in quick results. 

• Companies will sell you dreams...
• Employers will sell you dreams...
• Friends and family will sell you dreams...
• Society will sell you dreams...

But dreams are just that: dreams. If you have a dream when you sleep, they usually mean nothing. In the same way, a dream usually means nothing.

For me, don't sell me dreams. Sell me what works. And what works is this: patient and consistent labor done over a lengthy period of time will build up your rewards.

Whatever you want to pursue, resolve in your heart that you won't stop until you get what you're going for. If you get a reward right away, great! But that's only an exception. Don't get excited about exceptions. Don't get excited about being "lucky." Get excited that you kept on going despite not having ANY immediate rewards, and you ultimately got a HUGE reward for all the labor that you've faithfully done.

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