Our expectations

It is amazing to me the number of people who expect great things to happen to them without hard work and discipline. We all want to live a life of elegance, and have all our cares removed by having the finer things in life, but that does not usually just happen. Real life involves working long hours, doing jobs you may not want to do. Rolling up your sleeves, and getting your hands dirty. It takes years for most people to reach the stage in their lives, where the fruits of your labor pays off. It may never happen for some people due to bad decisions along the way. 

My upbringing taught me nothing about finances, and how cruel the world can be. I had to learn some valuable lessons along the way, and spent many ends of weeks waiting for my next paycheck. The trick is, I learned from my mistakes, and work hard to not take anything for granted. Make sure I plan for a rainy day, and live for today, but realize I have to also take care of tomorrow, just in case it comes. 

In all that has happened to me in my almost 50 years of life, one thing stands out. Desire. You need to have a desire to make your self better and brighter. Counting on freebies, hand-outs, and playing the blame game, or the "wo is me" game only keeps you from seeing greatness. You have to be honest with yourself and do something you love, or are good at. You cant achieve greatness until you know who you are and what greatness is to you.

If you truly want to brighten your current and future life, you can. It means you have to pay attention to words like, change, self-respect, eagerness, diligent, discipline, hard work, faith, drive, and you have to learn from your own mistakes and the mistakes of others. 

Here are a few ideas:

1. Hang out with intelligent people

2. Hang out with people who build you up, not tear you down.

3. Learn all you can about yourself. Learn all you can about what interests you.

4. Work hard everyday.

5. Don't be above doing the little things. Every day. 

6. Have a plan for today, tomorrow, and the foreseeable future.

7.  Be the one everyone says is the overachiever, even if it is doing menial tasks.

8. Do things that others don't like doing. Be the "go to" person.

We all have to start out at the bottom before we can get to the top, and many people want to be at the top right now. Unless you are born into power and money, you have to spend the time becoming great. Have high expectations of yourself. Have a high degree of desire. Have a work ethic that makes greatness appear in your life. Be available to help others. Spend time with making you better. Do for others before you do for you.

We can all be what we want to be, but it wont come easy, and it wont come without sacrifice, and in the end, the person who works the hardest will reap the biggest dividends. It is up to you to create your own brand, and identity. Use the many resources out here to achieve that.

Success isn't only measured in dollars. Become a person who people around you want to be in your life. Become a person who people value, and respect. Life is short, and we cant change yesterday, and tomorrow may not come, so be the best employee, owner, boss, co-worker you can be today. Love who you are, and if you don't, become someone better.

Rich Burks

President/Owner

28 Consulting, LLC