Sunday Snippet: Earl Nightingale

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“Never give up on a dream just because of the time it will take to accomplish it. The time will pass anyway.”

Ask young children what they want to be when they grow up and you’ll get all kinds of answers. A ballerina. A firefighter. An astronaut. A master chef. They have bold dreams and while they may not really know how to achieve them, they intuitively recognize that these dreams take time. Somehow, in our growing pragmatism, we can lose those ambitions as we get older. It’s too hard. It’s going to take too much time.

But is that really the way we should approach life? Earl Nightingale certainly didn’t think so. Best known as a a motivational speaker and author, Nightingale told us that we should not give up on our dreams just because they’re going to take time to accomplish. He’s right. Time is going to pass anyway, so you are much better off spending that time working to achieve your goals, rather than sitting by the wayside, letting life pass you by.

Indeed, your goals and dreams aren’t going to become reality on their own. You have to transcend your dreams by putting in the effort. Time is our most precious commodity, to be sure, but time is going to be spent no matter what you do. It is oftentimes said that your goal each day should be that you become a better man or woman than you were yesterday. This could be through enriching the lives of others, gaining knowledge, or getting that much closer to some of your bigger objectives. Be better.

There is a certain level of stubbornness that can be very healthy. As such, just because something seems difficult doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try to do it. Life is hard, but it should be. That’s what makes life interesting and that’s what makes life worth living. You just have to stick with it.

For more life lessons from Earl Nightingale, have a look at some of his books like The Strangest Secret and Lead the Field. I hear they’re pretty motivators.

Hat tip to Lesley for inspiring this post.