Every Sacrifice You’ll Have To Make To Do Incredible Shit With Your Life

There will come a time in your life when you’ll notice a shift. A shift that’s so subtle that it’ll feel totally effortless. A shift in your priorities, a shift in the way you spend your free time, a shift in the people you choose to have around you. That shift is growth. It’s your instincts telling you that it’s time to unlock new levels to your potential. That shift is you, only elevated, more focused and ready for greater challenges.

But the shift doesn’t come without sacrifice. It requires a willingness to shed layers of your life that you’ve outgrown. Even the ones that are so familiar that it’s all you’ve ever known. Those sacrifices will hurt at first. You’ll feel their absence, and you’ll crave to have them comfort you again at times. But those dreams you have won’t come true without some form of letting go. Of the past, of old habits, of people who hold you back. To live incredibly, you must give yourself over to that incredible life. You must do the difficult tasks and feel the uncomfortable things. No shortcuts.

You’ll have to sacrifice certain friendships.

What makes old friendships so amazing are your shared history. As you transform as a person, though, that shared history is all your friendship becomes. Those inside jokes and years of memories are the only glue keeping you close. And if most of your time together is spent reminiscing and gossiping about people you went to high school with, it’s time to re-evaluate the friendship. Because it’s true that you’re the average of the five people you spend the most time with. In order to grow, you’ll have to choose carefully, whatever the cost.

You’ll have to sacrifice many of the things that make you feel good – at least, for now.

All those things you treat yourself to after a hard day because you earned it. All those empty hours you have in the evenings and weekends or in between classes. You’ll have less of them. Instead, you’ll have your craft. The project that requires many failures to make it succeed. The dream that requires many tearful, lonely, and frustrated hours of hard work to make it real.

You’ll have to sacrifice expectation.

To chase that incredible life, you also have to make yourself vulnerable. You expose yourself to judgement, criticism and disapproval from the people who don’t think you’re capable. You expose yourself to feeling rejected by those who aren’t ready to support you. So, don’t expect to feel understood. Don’t expect your skin to be thick enough or your will to be strong enough. More importantly, don’t expect the vision you have of your dream to pan out exactly how you imagine it will. Instead, know that whatever it ends up looking like, the choice to go after it was brave enough. And wherever it ends up taking you, the process of getting there will make it all so worth it.