The Homeless Dude

Introduction:

Welcome my friend,

When you’re away at work or somewhere else and the thought of home hits you, what exactly comes to your mind?

Perhaps for you is somewhere you can't wait to run back to, your safe space for unwinding and resting, your comfortable place.

So for you it's somewhere you love, so you look forward to it.

Ideally, that’s how it’s supposed to feel.

Which is why it’s so hard for the ones who think of home and only picture a place they don’t want to be, or things they’d rather not deal with.

So that they're left asking why the one place that should feel so good, stir up such bad emotions.

Hmm, tough right?

Yeah.

…but how about the homeless dude?

The one who doesn’t even have a home?

He has nothing to picture.

Home doesn’t remind him of anything, because he’s never known what it feels like.

Discussion:

Now that we’ve laid out these three different scenarios, let’s take a quick look at our themed phrase “go hard or go home.”

To tell someone “go hard or go home” is to say they should put in their absolute best effort and produce real results, or else they’re better off heading home, doing nothing.

In other words: go all in, or don’t bother showing up at all.

Ideally, having both options available is a solid position to be in.

However, that privilege only belongs to people who can afford to go home and do nothing without facing serious consequences.

They’re the ones with a cushion, something to fall back on.

Lining this up with the categories of people we mentioned earlier, it’s clear that we're not referring to the homeless dude at all.

He doesn’t even have a home.

Which means that for him, there’s only one option.

■ The Homeless Dude's Mindset 

Since he has nowhere to return to, the homeless dude only knows how to go hard.

He doesn't have any second option waiting quietly in the background, no fallback to retreat to if his efforts don't pay off.

So his willpower isn’t forced or manufactured.

It’s simply the natural response of someone who knows exactly what he’s fighting for: the chance to finally give himself a home, and exactly what he’s fighting against, the very real possibility of staying homeless.

This clarity changes everything about how he thinks.

While some can treat the effort they put in as one option amongst several or as something they can dial up or down depending on how the day feels.

He understands that he doesn't have that luxury.

He understands that in the real sense, he only has one option, and if blows it, he could yet be done for.

■ The Homeless Dude's Approach 

The homeless dude's mindset shows up in how he moves.

Which means that we can expect the following characteristics in his approach:

▪︎ He's Precise 

Precision is the quality of a person that has realized that he lacks the cushion to absorb his mistakes, and therefore can't afford to make them.

For him every step is deliberate, aimed at what actually matters.

He doesn’t shoot for ten things half heartedly; he studies the one opportunity in front of him and gives it everything, because he understands that at the time, a scattered effort is a wasted one.

▪︎ He’s Devoted

His commitment isn't seasonal or dependent on how he feels on the day.

It’s constant, because the goal in front of him is too important to approach without full dedication.

For him devotion isn't a virtue he’s practicing.

It’s simply the only approach that makes sense given what’s at stake.

▪︎ He’s Willing

He's willing to do what’s uncomfortable, willing to start before he feels ready and surely willing to learn while he's on it.

He's willing to do the work others consider beneath them if that's where he'll rise from.

He knows that when home isn't guaranteed, pride is a currency one can't afford to spend.

So he does things others turn down, sits through humbling conversation others avoid, and starts from the place others are unwilling to.

▪︎ He’s Persevering

Setbacks don’t send him looking for an exit, because there isn’t one.

Where others might quit and retreat to comfort, he has to keep going, not out of some extraordinary strength, but because stopping was never really an option available to him.

For him, every rejection still stings the same way it would sting anyone else; he simply doesn’t let the sting stop him.

Probably because his situation feels a whole lot worse.

▪︎ He's Patient

He's already used to the discomfort of being homeless so he's not going to hastily want to escape the discomfort of going hard by rushing the process.

He's willing to wait, and will wait until he gets what he wants.

■ The Quiet Cost Of Cushion 

There’s a lesson here for those of us who do have somewhere to fall back to, and it’s an uncomfortable one.

A cushion, while a blessing, can also dull the very urgency that produces our best effort.

When we know we’ll be fine either way, “go hard” starts competing with “go home” for our attention, and too often, home wins simply because it’s easier.

This doesn’t mean comfort is the enemy.

It means comfort, left unchecked, can quietly talk us out of the effort our goals actually require, simply because we’ve made peace with the idea that failure won’t cost us very much.

Another thing cushion does is take away our will to push ourselves to the limits.

Here, rather than let the challenges of going hard grow us up, we step away, remaining stuck in a place we should have fought harder to outgrow.

■ Borrowing His Urgency On Purpose

We don’t have to lose our homes to gain this kind of focus.

We just have to be willing to treat our goals as though we had nothing to fall back on, even when we do.

This means asking ourselves honestly, especially in the moments we’re tempted to coast:

What would I change in my effort, if going home simply wasn’t an option?

Would we still submit the mediocre draft?

Would we still skip the uncomfortable conversation?

Would we still give the project sixty percent because that feels enough?

Often, the answer reveals exactly how much we’ve been holding back comfortably, because we could.

■ Home: A Place Of Rest 

Home is the place we return to once we’ve pushed hard enough.

It's the place of completion, where we finally rest after all our work is done.

Which means that a person still building has no home; a homeless dude.

This is all of us.

The truth is, as believers, God our Master assigns us a purpose that demands we keep pressing forward with intensity.

We do this so that, when the appointed time arrives, we can come home to Him satisfied, knowing we gave everything we had.

This is the believers ultimate goal.

God calls us to put our gifts and talents to work in serving others, to labor diligently and productively, maximizing every ability He’s given us.

This is how we go hard for Him.

Summary:

It's time to go, my friend.

Once again, I’ve really enjoyed our time hanging out here together.

Cheers to the weekend.

Don’t be homeless, but feel free to be the homeless dude.

Master Apprentice 🇳🇬 

www.x.com/truekingmaker