Be it a product of these ever-evolving times we live in,
a product of the technologies that we often allow to rule our daily lives,
or simply a product of our evolutionary nature,
we humans are very impatient beings.
Whether its our fitness, our finances,
or the absolution of our everlasting soul,
we don’t want to work hard,
and we don’t want to wait.
We want it cheap, we want it easy,
and we want it right now.
We take pills and jump from one crash diet to another,
to try and look more like the models we see in filtered images on the screen of our phone.
We spend our hard earned dollars on products the media would have us believe will make us feel just a bit more whole,
and invest what’s left into business models we don’t understand,
based on the overnight fortunes promised to us by people we don’t know.
We show up to church on Christmas and Easter,
we say our 10 hail Mary’s,
and we expect to be at peace with the idea that our place inside heaven’s pearly gates is ready and waiting.
Expecting something for nothing,
we look out to the world and say, “You scratch my back, and I’ll scratch yours.”
Personally, I was raised in one of the wealthiest communities in one of the wealthiest countries in the world,
and given that I often perceived my home life to be ‘less than’ that of my peers,
for years I walked around with a chip on my shoulder,
believing myself to be in a position of lack,
and believing that this world owed me something.
Today,
I work in a loosely regulated business where the strength of a man’s character is tested on a daily basis.
And if there’s anything I’ve learned between now and then,
if there’s anything I’ve learned from all the suits and smoke-filled rooms,
if there’s anything I’ve learned in the pursuit of musicianship, athleticism, and wealth,
its that this world doesn’t owe me shit,
and nothing worth having comes easy,
or cheap,
and it certainly doesn’t come overnight.
You see,
what I’ve found,
is that while most people look to the world and say,
“You scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours,”
ultimately this philosophy is rooted in scarcity.
Because anybody can be kind in the face of kindness.
Anybody can reciprocate love and light that has first been shown to them.
But to live a life of genuine abundance is to function as part and parcel of the source.
It is not to simply reflect the love and light that has first been shown to you,
it is to manifest your own from within and to share it with the world.
It is to put in more than you could ever get out.
Like Christ kneeling and washing the feet of the disciples stating,
“The last shal be first, and the first last,”
it is to scratch the backs of all those within your reach,
knowing that while many are not ready to return the grace you’ve shown them,
when it does come back to you,
(and it will come back to you)
it will come with such speed and in such great abundance that you’ll wonder if it has always been there all along.
It won’t happen overnight,
as good things take time to grow and need strong roots to survive.
But by setting aside our desire for immediate gratification,
and by playing the long game,
we build a foundation for more than just sustained success.
We build a foundation for a kind of success unexpected,
and often unhoped for in common hours:
the complete manifestation of our highest and best self,
serving the world around us to the greatest of our abilities,
in a way that only we can.
Like any good millennial,
my patience and my long-sightedness often elude me.
Like anybody coming to age in the Western world in this century,
I want positive, replicable results,
and I want them yesterday.
But as the years have passed me by,
I’ve only come to greater appreciate the old saying,
“easy come, easy go.”
While a platitude for sure,
it too holds a certain inherent truth,
if only in that:
when external conditions that we perceive as positive come to us easily,
we tend to underestimate their value,
and when we fail to recognize the abundance in the world around us,
we often fail to nurture it in a way that is congruent with its longevity,
and more importantly,
with its growth.
However,
when we choose to play the long game,
when we do the work to go within and rediscover that which gives our time on this earth purpose,
when we’re willing do the practice for as long as it takes,
to in turn provide our greatest value to those around us,
we lay the groundwork for a sustained holistic success,
built to weather the peaks and valleys of any economy,
through the long and winding road that is life in this reality.
Playing this long game,
you will undoubtedly meet failure,
but in all of it you will find meaning,
for you can know full well that it is simply a part of the process of going from who you are,
to who you could become.
The outside world would have you believe that you are not enough,
that it holds the keys to all you lack,
and that they can be yours for nothing more than the click of a button.
But as the late Bob Marley once wrote,
“None but ourselves can free our minds.”
We are the lock to all this universe has to offer,
and we are similarly the key.
But the journey to liberation from our self imposed chains is no over night pass.
It is a long game,
the work of a lifetime, in fact,
and in the end,
it will have made all the difference.