Are you Bringing it or just Winging it?

Life is a contact sport, and if you want to be the person standing with the championship trophy at the end of the game, then you need to live your life with an all out effort, rather than just sitting in the stands watching other people enjoy the spoils of victory.

People who float through life just going with the flow are the same people who end up being dashed onto the rocks at the bottom of the waterfall, whereas people who are willing to kick, fight, claw, and scratch for what they want are the people whose lives become examples of what dreams are made of.

Life hands us plenty of opportunities to just take the easy way out, and most people do exactly that. Although they know in their heart’s that they want more than they are presently getting out of life, the huge effort that would be required of them to receive the spoils of going against the current is simply beyond their willingness to undertake. They apply a token effort (winging it) rather than a consistent 100% intensity effort (bringing it), and they are rewarded with wonderfully mediocre results.

People who BRING IT, on the other hand, take charge of their lives by giving up the victim mentality. As Joel Osteen is fond of saying, they are vicTOR’s rather than vicTIM’s.

It’s not an easy journey, though, which is precisely why most people don’t do it. Someone who is “bringing it” lays their head on their pillow at the end of the day with the true 100% belief that they did everything in their power to make their dreams a reality that day, and they often have the scars to prove it.

People from the “winging it” group, on the other hand, lay in bed at night wondering if they did the right thing, worrying about their future, lying to themselves about why they backed off on their intensity, why they ate so much junk food that day, or why they let that person push them around.

• People who BRING IT don’t worry about anything. They have truly done everything they can do, so worrying is a complete waste of time.
• People who just wing it constantly wonder what they could have done better, or what they need to do tomorrow to make up for today’s shortcomings.
• People who BRING IT may be scratched, beat up, bruised, or bleeding, but they go to bed knowing that they truly fought their best fight, and they are at peace as a result.
• People who just wing it are masters at coming up with reasons excuses for why they didn’t make an all out effort.
• People who BRING IT live up to their personal integrity every single day, even if it means a lack of security, or if it means taking a risk.
• People who just wing it always take the safe route, and they die just a little bit inside each time they give up what they truly want in order to settle for what they believe they can have.
• People who BRING IT realize that every 60 seconds of their life is another 60 seconds that they can take action towards their goals.
• People who just wing it always have reasons excuses for why they haven’t yet finished a project, or accomplished a goal.
• People who BRING IT understand that their position of power is something that they create internally, and that it has nothing to do with the outside circumstances.
• People who just wing it can always justify their willingness to give up control of their lives with lots of “real world” reasons for why it’s all out of their hands.
• People who BRING IT also KNOW that they are bringing it, and even if they live in a cardboard box, their cardboard box is the best one on the block because it was built with confidence and pride, not lack and despair.
• People who just wing it are well aware of the fact that they are winging it, and no matter how successful or unsuccessful they are, the voice in the back of their mind never stops reminding them that their life isn’t what it could be. They are also quite proficient at ignoring that voice.

There are a lot of people (myself included) who say that life should be full of joy, and that true joy is effortless. When you are truly living your life in alignment with your desires, struggle is not part of the equation. The confusion comes in when people equate the word “effortless” with the word “easy”.

Effortless means that even though you are gasping for air and physically exhausted during a workout, you are 100% confident that you are doing the right thing for your body, and that fills you with joy.

– Easy means that you don’t workout at all, or that you only give a token effort.

Effortless means that even though you have to live on 4 hours of sleep per night while you build a business or finish your education, you are 100% confident that you are doing the right thing for your future.

– Easy means just taking a day job and hoping for the best.

Effortless means that you do everything and anything in your power to make your relationships wonderful by being the best you that you can be, and you are 100% confident that anyone who doesn’t see the value in what you have to offer doesn’t deserve to have you in their life.

– Easy means settling for relationship circumstances that you don’t agree with or enjoy.

Effortless means standing up for what you believe in at work, at church, in your neighborhood, and even in your own home, because you are 100% confident that living up to your personal integrity is more important than living by the status quo.

– Easy means doing what everyone else is doing so you don’t rock the boat.

The difference between “effortless” and “easy” is the same difference between “Bringing It” and “Winging It”. One of those states of mind ensures success, abundance, happiness, and joy, while the other ensures struggle, strife, fear, and uncertainty.

Life gives us back exactly what we put into it. If you want your life to be a Kingdom of Glory, Success, Joy, and Happiness, then act like a King, not like a pauper.