The Sacrifice – An Unpopular Leap of

Faith
I’d like to present something called the Liz Lemon Fallacy. Liz Lemon, played by Tina Fey,
is the lead role in the sitcom 30 Rock. One of the ongoing jokes about her character is
that she always thought that she was getting one step closer to “having it all”: a good
career, the respect of her coworkers, a stable relationship and the satisfaction of
knowing that she stuck to her values and stood up for what she believed in. The joke
part of that is that, as nearly every episode proves, she is dead wrong. If you ever feel
the same way Liz Lemon does, then you’re dead wrong, too.
The Liz Lemon Fallacy is the mistaken belief that, if you can just get yourself organized, if
you can just get the hang of this certain system, or if you can just get caught up over
the weekend, then you can get all your work done, stay in touch with all your friends,
keep all your dishes clean, stay in shape, catch all your favorite TV shows and still have
time to call your mom maybe once a week.  That, as it turns out, is simply not true.

There are exactly 24 hours in each day and exactly seven days in each week. There is
exactly one of you, and that body that your brain rides around in needs roughly four to
six hours of sleep every night in order to function. Meanwhile, it takes about 10,000
hours of practice to become an expert at something (according to a study by Dr. K.
Anders Ericsson, which was cited throughout Malcolm Gladwell’s book Outliers: The
Story of Success). It takes about 120 semester hours to earn a bachelor’s degree, which
amounts to about 1,800 hours sitting in a class room. It takes about 40 hours to earn a
master’s degree, which amounts to about 600 hours in class (and that doesn’t include
time spent reading, studying and writing a thesis). These are just the things that you can
easily quantify. How many hours did it take to develop Facebook? How many hours did
it take to for Tesla to invent and develop the AC motor? How many hours has Michael
Phelps spent in the pool?

No matter how hard you fudge the math, it’s clear that you’re not going to be able to
“have it all” by waking up 30 minutes earlier or brushing your teeth in the shower or
fashioning yourself a hipster PDA.  This means that if you are going to be serious about
sticking to The Plan and achieving your goals, then you’re going to have to make some
major personal sacrifices.

Making sacrifices, I would argue, is the hardest part of hard work. It’s harder even than
the work itself. When we think about our goals and the work that we’ll have to put into
them, we tend to downplay this part of the equation in our mind. For example, if you are
imagining yourself pursuing a career as a novelist, it’s easy to imagine typing long into
the night. “All I have to do is write and write and write, right?” you think. “No problem. I
love writing. Otherwise I wouldn’t want to be a writer.”

But that’s not the hard part. Sacrifice isn’t about what you do to reach your goals; it’s
about what you choose not to do for the sake of your ambition.

This is worse than it sounds. In order to stick to The Plan, the things you have to give up
will be so important to you that it hurts to see them go. This is the definition of sacrifice:
the act of surrendering something of value for the sake of a greater purpose. You don’t
read about biblical figures sacrificing pigs or sickly runts. They killed the fatted calf.

Likewise, the sacrifice you make for the sake of your goals will have to be something
near and dear to you. It’s easy to be caught off guard by this. Part of the reason for that
is that, like hard work in general, making sacrifice is something that we tend to feel we
are already doing. Specifically, we as a society like to pretend that we are making a
sacrifice by giving up material possessions. Before we forge The Plan and come face-to-
face with The Grind, we factor this runty sacrifice into our mental bargaining. “It’ll be no
problem to start my own business. I can live off ramen noodles and drive my beater of a
car for a few more years to make ends meet. I don’t need material things to make me
happy,” we think.

But things don’t always work out so easily. Eschewing a life of conspicuous consumption
and lavish luxuries isn’t some kind of righteous, enlightened path. It’s how pretty much
everyone already lives. As much as we complain that we live in a materialistic society, no
one really believes that owning a Jaguar or a designer watch is their life’s purpose. Most
of us place far more value on experiences, relationships and security. These are the
things that make us truly happy. And these are the things that you’ll have to sacrifice for
the sake of hard work.

The Plan occupies an immense amount of space in your life. For many, it consumes it
entirely. Giving 110 percent to one cause means that you have less than zero percent to
give elsewhere. Your other plans will have to be cancelled or put on hold. Your
relationships will be tested and will likely terminate. You will miss funerals, reunions,
bachelor parties, holidays, movie premieres and so much more. You’ll uproot yourself
from the place that you call home and move to the place where your dreams have a
better chance of taking root, leaving your friends, your family, your girlfriend and your
comfort zone behind. Perhaps even more painfully, you’ll have to give up on some of
your other dreams that aren’t directly related to the one you are pursuing in The Plan.
(You can’t be an astronaut and a rock star—at least not to my knowledge. If I’m wrong,
please post a link to the exception in the comments.)
But that’s not the hard part. Sacrifice isn’t about what you do to reach your
goals; it’s about what you choose not to do for the sake of your ambition.
Because you are doing hard work, it means you’ll be saying “no” over and over and over
again. You’ll say “no” when the people you love want you to say “yes,” and a part of you
desperately wants to say “yes,” too. You’ll let go of so many things that you’ve been
wanting to do, been meaning to do, or thought you had to do in order to feel alive.
You’ll do these things and no one—not even you—will know for sure if the sacrifice you
are making is worth it.

Taking that leap of faith and making that sacrifice is the hardest part of The Plan. But
you will have to do it sooner or later. You may even have to do it more than once.

Doing the Hard Work – The Sacrifice

If you’re not making a true personal sacrifice, then you’re not working hard. You’re
coasting. Can you coast your way to success? Yes. If you are rich enough, lucky enough
or talented enough, you certainly can achieve your goals without making any personal
sacrifice. But that typically means that you’re simply setting the bar too low. This
translates into barely any achievement at all.

The struggle between you and the obstacles to your goals is a war of attrition. There is
no limit to what you can put forth. You only admit defeat when you refuse to make any
further sacrifices.

Do the hard work. Give up something you love or give up your dreams. You can’t have it
all.

The Payoff
Although the previous four sections might seem discouraging, that’s not the point of
this article. I’m not trying to talk you out of working hard toward your goals by telling
you that you’ll lose sleep, lose friends and remain forever alone. What I’m trying to
convince you is that no matter how hard you think you are working, you can work
harder. But in order to do so, you’re going to have to do just as much emotional and
spiritual hard work as physical and mental hard work.  True hard work has a disruptive
effect on your life, which is exactly the intended effect. There are positives and negatives
to this disruption, but if the goal that you have your sights on is truly what you want,
then it will all be worth it.
In Aimee Elizabeth’s rags-to-riches story, there was certainly payoff and sacrifice. She
went from being broke and homeless to being a retiree before the age of 40 and a
multimillionaire before the age of 50.  The sacrifice she made in doing so was the
decision to harden a part of her heart at a young age, and to this day, she struggles to
soften it once again. Whether this was a good bargain or not remains to be seen, but
her extraordinary story proves that upward mobility is possible.

In Akshay Nanavati’s story, the sacrifice and payoff are still somewhat fresh. As of the
time of this article, it’s only been three months since he walked away from his fulltime
job in order to dedicate himself fully to his exploration and entrepreneurship. But
already, he’s realized a number of significant milestones in his journey. The experience
of traversing the Greenland ice cap was a month long payoff in itself, but it also helped
him grow spiritually and physically. He now lives life on his own terms and is his own
boss. He’s validated his wife’s support of both him and his ambitions. Although there is
still tension, he’s reached an understanding with her. “She wants me to live the life I
want and be the person that I am, just as I want her to do the same and we support
each other on the journey,” Akshay explains.

What’s important to remember about The Payoff is that it’s never terminal. While it’s
crucial to recognize the moments when you’ve reached a milestone or conquered a
certain leg of your journey, your hard work is never truly over. Hard work is a lifestyle
that you will live until you die. Take the payoffs, celebrate them, and then reinvest them
into the next challenge ahead.

Akshay Nanavati is a success coach, explorer and inspirational speaker. Learn more at his
blog:  Existing2Living.

Aimee Elizabeth is the bestselling author of  Poverty Sucks! How to Become a Self-Made
Millionaire!