PAY THE PRICE

In the words of the Million Dollar Man Ted DiBiase. 

“Everything’s got a Price. Everyone gotta pay.” 

You can’t steal the life you want. It’s not like money where you can take it from somebody. Even if you steal an idea you still have to execute the idea. You still have to pay the price. The price is heavy and it’s not cheap because your time is what you have to front. You can’t stack time. Once it’s spent it’s spent. There is no re-up. You’re not up. There is no breaking even. You’re down. That’s it. You want it. You gotta pay the price. 

This is what I’m noticing about my life. I’m in a rare position at my age. Whether it’s a good or bad position that’s for you to decide but I have the ability to go & do wherever the fuck I want. I don’t have kids. So if I wanted to go to Indonesia to meditate and live there for 2 months I can. If I’m not feeling something I can remove myself from anything with no issue. Knowing that I have that freedom allows me to look at my time in a different light. It’s what makes me take my time seriously and allows me to focus on this huge hill I have to climb. 

I would love to go out to eat as much as possible. I would love to just chill and watch tv everyday but I rather pay the price. I would like to travel and go on vacations but paying the price to get my company where I want it beats that. I would love to sleep until 9am. I choose not to. I do shit I don’t want to do to get closer to what I view as the big payoff. You gotta pay the price now so you can afford to pay any price later. You think I like getting up at 4am to go to the gym? Fuck no. You think I enjoy eating healthy? That’s not fun. You think I like not buying shit even though I have the money to buy shit? No. I wanna buy shoes everyday. Being on a budget isn’t fun. I have things I need and want to accomplish. Nothing is getting in the way of that. I will choose what I’m building over anything because this is what will shape my future. My happiness is attached to this. I’m passionate about it. If I’m not doing or going after what energizes me I’m not going to be any good to anybody. That applies to you too. 

You ever seen someone who put their goals behind them or on hold? They’re miserable. They’re dying inside. I see it in married people all the time. They’re getting more miserable day by day. Then when it’s too late they have to learn to live with regrets and they can’t because they know they never gave themselves the chance to pay the price. These people may have a nice house. A secure job. A good family but they’re a shell of themselves. Not everyone aspires to have those things even though they’re not bad. I would like those things but I want what energizes me first. I want a career doing what I love then we can talk about the other things. 

I’m not getting any younger. I’m not in my 20’s. I gotta do the work. I gotta pay the price. I wish people could try to do what I do daily and see what it’s really like. I get up. I exercise. I go over the blog post I’m dropping that day to make sure everything good. I drop the blog post on multiple platforms. If it’s a Monday I’m dropping a podcast episode too and I have to upload it on 3 different sites. I work 2 jobs so after I post that shit I’m going to work. I get off work and then it’s time to write so I have something to post on my blog the next day. By the time I finish writing It’s most likely 9 or 10pm and I have to go to bed because I have to get up early and repeat everything the next day. I’m not even including if I have to go to a meeting or shoot a video for my podcast. This shit don’t stop. I don’t have time to fuck around. I’m broke and unhappy. Unhappy in the sense of I’m not doing what I want and I work for people. 

There’s someone reading this and they’re wondering why something they’re working on isn’t popping yet. It’s because they’re not paying the price. If I had a way to see how they spend their time for 2 weeks and they didn’t have the ability to lie about what they do I bet I can find more than one occasion they could’ve been working on what they claim their dream is but instead they’re wasting time. You’re already wasting time at the job you don’t like but that keeps the lights on so we can excuse that but outside of that, your margin for error when it comes to your time is slim. When you get off you gotta go clock in AGAIN but what you’re clocking in for this time means so much more. The stakes are higher. You gotta deposit your time and there’s no guarantees you’ll have a return on your investment. How do you claim you wanna live life on YOUR terms but the first thing you do when you wake up is turn on a video game or spend an hour on social media just browsing. Not uploading content. Not networking, but just browsing. Living life on your terms is the job almost 99 percent of people in this world desire. But what a lot of you don’t realize is the price you have to pay to have that career. 

You a photographer. Try taking 50 photos per day. Reading up on editing an hour a day. Practice. You’re a painter paint something everyday. You’re a writer. Write something everyday. You podcast? Work on topics, ideas, and notes daily. Everybody gets on social media and say what they’re gonna do but when it’s time to pay the price their pockets are on bunny ears. They have nothing to deposit because they don’t want to deposit anything. Their work ethic doesn’t back up their talk. How are you gonna be an entrepreneur or one of the greatest creatives in the world tweeting shit like “I’m Bored?” What the fuck you mean you bored? You supposed to be working and getting better. You supposed to be running your marathon to your mountaintop. Fuck going out. You not missing shit. Ain’t nothing out there you ain’t seen. What you haven’t seen is your dreams in real time and you haven’t seen yourself living those dreams. 

I believe in work life balance. I practice it when I feel I can but a lot of you treat work life balance like cheat meals in diets. First it’s a cheat meal. Then it becomes a cheat day. 3 days later you’ve eaten so fucking poorly that you’ve completely negated all the working out you’ve done. It’s the same with work life balance. You were in a groove creatively. You decide to watch a series then you end up binge watching a bunch of shit now that creative project is hard to come back to. It’s like removing a screw from an engine. It’s small but in due time that small screw missing in the engine will disrupt the flow of the engine and fuck up even more important parts on the engine and now your car is stranded in the street. You never wanna disrupt your flow because it’s hard to get it back and you’re wasting valuable time when you do that. 

The year just started. You’re energized. Keep that same energy. When it’s June 16th and you feel like you’ve lost some energy and you’ve seen everyone around you throw in the towel on the year and get complacent. Just remember to pay the price and keep working. 

Peace 

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