Ever heard of the Ant and the Grasshopper?
Well for those who can’t remember this childhood tale, it goes a little something like this:
The Ant and the Grasshopper
One stinking hot summer’s day there was a Grasshopper who was out brunching on smashed avo, boozing at rooftop bars, and shopping on the ‘Paris End’ of Collins St living the Melbourne dream!
As the Grasshopper was winding down after a rough day of YOLO he passed an Ant who was struggling to carry all his bags of Costco sized groceries. The Grasshopper asks “Ant, why are you working so hard to stock up on food? Why not come and YOLO with me?”
“I am helping collect food for the Winter” said the Ant “everyone knows all shops shut over winter (in this story anyway) so I suggest you do the same”
“Who cares about Winter?” giggled the Grasshopper; “there is plenty of fresh food at the moment” But the Ant ignored his ignorant friend and continued to gather supplies.
Soon enough Summer fun turned into Winter blues, and the Grasshopper realised Ant was right, there was no food to be found and turns out he got deathly hangry, while Ant was enjoying his mulled wine and braised lamb for the rest of winter!
Moral of the story, YOLO isn’t always a cool as it sounds.
This story relates to our everyday life more than I ever cared to realise until recently. This was when I started asking myself what is the difference between those who succeed vs those who always ‘want’ but never get there. This is something I wanted to research to see if this would assist in helping our members smash their goals… perhaps there was some secret recipe??
When I started doing some more research on this I realised that people’s goals weren’t the differentiating factor. We all want our own version of a happy life, to have nice things, have successful careers, insta-ready bods and make an impact on the world (did we mention we want all of this at the same time, and before age 35 would be great… thanks).
Funnily enough, they don’t offer ‘happy life’ at the Maccas drive through with a side of fries. So we dug a little further and found the difference between ‘achieving’ and ‘dreaming’ actually lay with how much people were willing to suffer/ forgo to get there. Those who succeeded were the ones who were willing to forgo going to brunch so they could save up for that house deposit, suffer being tired and sore when they hauled their ass to gym at 5am every morning to earn that 6 pack or suffer to work 60 hours a week to work their way to the top of that corporate ladder or to start their own business?
Or the Ant, who forwent not enjoying summer, to ensure he lasted the winter?
Do you think Richard Branson, Beyonce, or even that one person you have in your life you look at and think “damn, they have their sh*t together” just dreamed of achieving, or do you think they were willing to suffer and forgo other things in order to be there?
We are definitely not saying one is better then the other, but when thinking about creating your ideal life, instead of asking yourself “what type of life do I want” perhaps the better question is “how much am I willing to suffer / forgo to achieve my goals?” Perhaps that will give you the true answer.
So, are you the Grasshopper, or the Ant?
