The Cost

If success did not have a cost, everyone would enjoy it.

If achievement had no cost, it would be of no value.

If fulfillment required no effort, it would have no meaning.

We tend to think of great accomplishments in terms of the end result. Yet that is often just a token. The accomplishment itself is in the doing, in the effort, in the paying of the costs.

To live successfully requires not that you accumulate trophies, but rather that whether you are willing to pay the costs which success demands.

To live successfully requires effort, commitment, discipline, focus, passion and a whole host of other qualities which cannot be stored in a warehouse but which must be exercised from moment to moment.

The value that you seek, is in the price that you paid.

-Ralph Marston