Are You Still Struggling?

“The battle of life is, is in most cases, fought uphill; and to win it without a struggle were perhaps to win it without honor. If there were no difficulties there would be no success; if there were nothing to struggle for, there would be nothing to be achieved.” – Samuel Smiles

Huuuuuuhhhhhh? I have to admit I used to believe in struggle. Although I didn’t realize it, I’d believed in struggle for years. Years. I would have some success and then find some way to screw it up to slow my progress. I would go forward, then back 4 steps, forward a few and keep repeating the cycle. It’s like I had to make things more difficult for myself then they needed to be. Have you ever done that?

What I didn’t get back in the day is that I bought into a really bad BELIEF about struggle. I thought things needed to be difficult and a struggle was necessary in order to achieve my ultimate goal(s). It’s a belief passed onto all of us from our environment; home, school, parents, jobs we’ve had, and other people around us, particularly in this business of show.

It’s a belief I see so often in the ‘starving artist’ community. Check this out:

You know that saying – ‘the rich get richer and the poor get poorer’? I’ve come to learn it’s true, but it’s only true because the poor have bought into the belief called struggle. Struggle is all about negativity. Struggle develops from a self image that doesn’t believe one’s worthiness to succeed. The rich know there is no struggle with regard to making money. If you haven’t already, I recommend highly that you read “Think and Grow Rich” by Napoleon Hill to dig deeper into this subject. In fact I created a great seminar on the subject called “Think and Grow Rich Acting” so actors could see these hidden beliefs and blind spots, identify them, and release the struggle.

But what is the origin of all of this often expected, and mostly taken in stride struggle? It develops from a belief around one’s worthiness. Heck, we all want to succeed, but do you believe you will, and if so, what is that belief based on?

Do you realize there may be some ridiculously stupid belief you bought into years ago that’s holding you back today from your best self? Yes, someone said something, and you believed that in order to have what you really wanted, it would be hard, a struggle, and you might possibly NEVER get it. Like that huge acting career, with an awesome agent that leads to an Oscar and a bulging bank account? Can you have that?  Only if you believe you can.

“Whether you think you can, or you think you can’t–you’re right.” – Henry Ford 

So what’s the opposite of struggle?  Stay tuned for my next post…