YOU’VE EARNED IT

These letters are on a Black Label (a beer product from South Africa) billboard inside Khayelitsha (one of the bigger township from Cape Town South Africa.)

These words strike me everytime I drive by the billboard. I don’t even drink beer but the words stir something inside me. I feel a sense of pride, a sense of reward deep inside me.

How many of us actually say, “You’ve earned it!” to ourselves? How does it make you feel when you are trully in the moment and then say it to yourself?

Nothing can replace the sense of accomplishment that you can give yourself when you trully congradulate yourself after a protracted struggle. My parents, my teachers and my professors have said it to me countless times but my thoughts count more than all their compliments combined.

My thoughts would be along these lines:”Thoriso, you own property, you are a qualified medical doctor and a business owner…Thoriso, You’ve earned it!” Thinking that makes me almost tear up.

What about you? Have you taken a long hard look at your accomplishments and told yourself in earnest, “You’ve Earned It.”

It must be in the second person, like you are saying it to yourself as an admirer of your accomplishment through adversity. “I have earned it”, is cliche’d and weak compared to “You’ve earned it!” thats possibly why Black Label used the phrase.

Try this simple exercise, and as always please comment on this post and tell me what you think and felt when you said, “You’ve Earned It.”