(Photo: nappy/Pexels | Text: David/ArtisanEnglish.jp)
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Phrase: Keep your eyes on the prize
Do you know what the difference between achieving your goals and not achieving your goals is?
It’s not failure; I can tell you that.
The difference is a loss of focus.
To be successful, you must keep your eyes on the prize.
The prize is your goal, and to achieve that goal, you must maintain focus and refuse to be distracted by problems and setbacks.
Have you ever heard the expression it takes a long time to achieve overnight success?
It is one of the most accurate statements I have ever heard.
I have outstanding students.
They come from all walks of life with tremendous personal stories, but the one thing they all have in common is their focus on attaining their goal of speaking English fluently.
They have kept their eyes on the prize through all the good times and bad, including divorce, death, sickness, job transfers, career changes, natural disasters and losing loved ones in war.
Midnight oil is in high demand in Japan because so many people are working late into the evening or early morning writing essays, reading articles and otherwise keeping their eyes on the prize.
It’s much easier said than done.
Today it’s incredibly easy to go down the rabbit hole of YouTube videos or endlessly scrolling through cat videos on Instagram.
No matter what the endeavour, you have to keep your eyes on the prize, focus and fight through the distractions.
Also, there are going to be a few setbacks, hiccups or bumps in the road.
Nothing is easy, and often the most challenging part is forcing yourself to persevere when it seems you are not moving forward.
Success comes out of keeping your eyes on the prize and working at a steady pace even when you don’t want to do anything.
Flesch-Kincaid Readability Test
This post is understandable by someone with at least a 7th-grade education (age 12).
On the Flesch-Kincaid reading-ease test, this post scores 72.
The easier a passage is to read, the higher the score on a scale of 0 – 100.