To Win Life's Prize, You Must Pay Life's Price

[tconnor]

Personal Success Tips #217
To Win Life's Prize, You Must Pay Life's Price

The Prize
The prize has no economic value, and once you win it, no one can take it from you. And you can’t buy it, you must earn it. The prize is worth whatever price you have to pay, but you must be willing to pay it. You can’t win the prize if you don’t pay the price. That’s just the way life is.

Many people feel or believe they are worthy of the prize, even though they have not yet paid the price. If this were the only requirement, it would be unnecessary to even have to pay a price. Everyone would win the prize just by showing up. Just being born would be enough to win the prize.

Unfortunately, if this were the case, the prize would have no value, and people would treat it with disrespect and scorn.

What gives the prize its value is not winning the prize itself or the value that other people put on the prize, but the price that each of us must pay to earn the right to win it and then enjoy it. I must admit that at times in my life, I thought I wanted the prize without paying the price. On one occasion, God chose to give me the prize without the payment of the price. In the end, I lost the prize. In fact, while I had it, it was filled with emptiness, envy, jealousy, sadness, and resentment.

The prize is not about race, gender, color, age, education, or cultural background. Everyone can win the prize.

So, our role is simple: Pay the price and if you win the prize, rejoice and be thankful; and if you don’t get the prize, rejoice and be thankful. Sound like a paradox? It is. God makes the rules. He determines the price and when you have earned the prize. What is the prize? It is spelled out clearly in the following pages.

The Price
Success, happiness, wealth, and peace all require that a price be paid to have and enjoy them. Some people pay the price willingly, while others pay it grudgingly, and most refuse to pay it at all. Some never know what the price is, because they fail to spend the time or invest the energy to discover it.

The price is not difficult, it is not life threatening, it doesn’t cost a dime, and it doesn’t take a lot of time. If this is true, why do so few people pay it? The price is called purpose, desire, and will. I can only tell you that when the price is paid, it always leads to the prize. The prize, however, might not always resemble the prize that we thought we should get or imagined, but—having paid the price--we always win a prize.

Paying this price is not a race. You can pay it as a teenager or on your deathbed or you can choose not to pay it at all. Winning the prize is not a competition between you and someone else, and you don’t get a bigger prize if you pay a bigger price. If you decide to pay the price sooner rather than later in life, you do, however, get to enjoy the fruits of the prize longer. Everyone who wins the prize has paid the price.

Now, it might appear to you that on some occasions someone has won the prize and didn’t pay the price. Do not be deceived. The prize is not always about power, fame, position, or wealth. Everyone can pay the price and, therefore, win the prize. The price someone must pay is not up to you or me. You might feel that someone else did not pay a big enough price for the prize. That is God’s call, so just relax and just pay the price with confidence, faith, and patience.

What is the price? It is responsibility, seeing no limitations, and taking positive, consistent, and focused action.

[tracyho]

Thanks Tim , for your encouraging words,

To your success always,
Tracy Ho
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