Here’s the thing about working hard. It’s hard.
And while that makes obvious sense, I have found that I’m not really good at making what is hard a little bit easier.
That’s part of the crazy mindset that I’ve been trying to fix over the last few years.
I used to revel in doing things that were hard.
It wasn’t a macho thing. I just figured out that most people don’t like doing hard things. And since they don’t like doing hard things they work really hard to do anything but things that are hard.
It doesn’t really make a lot of sense, but it’s how most people operate — “If it’s hard, I must be doing something wrong…”
HERE’S WHERE I WENT WRONG.
Because I was young and scrappy and a college dropout with a massive chip on my shoulder, I intentionally went out of my way to do impossibly hard things, knowing that my competition for winning those projects was quite a bit slimmer then where everyone else was competing.
Unfortunately, that created a monster. At least inside my head.
See, now I intentionally look for the hard things. I go out of my way looking for trouble.
That’s neither smart nor a recipe for longevity.
Sure — sometimes you do need to intentionally do things that are difficult. But then, there are a whole lot of other things that just need to get done.
They need to be completed. And they need to be wrapped up as soon as possible. With as little trouble as possible.
MAKING EASY THINGS HARD DOESN’T MAKE YOU BRILLIANT.
It kind of makes you stupid (talking to myself here).
It’s not smart to resist improvement or a proven process. It’s not a badge of honor to intentionally create everything “brand new.”
One of the really cool lessons I learned last year from one of my mentors was this:
“Start looking hard at the people in your life that you admire, who are also successful. Take a look at the steps that they’ve taken and the processes they use right now.
Don’t copy their journey. Emulate their attitude and actions in the present.”
Here is what my mentor intended for me to understand — successful people got that way by doing things that I need to shut up and pay attention to.
“LOOK AT WHAT THEY ARE DOING RIGHT NOW.”
Instead of doing hard things and making needless mistakes, I just need to emulate, internalize, and improve.
And maybe you do too?
Think about it… It makes sense to follow people who have probably already figured out the same mistakes you’re going to make. It’s not magic. They just have more repetitions than you do.
Copy. Improve. Level up. Then keep repeating that.
The post One Smart Way to Make Doing Hard Things Easier. appeared first on Dan Waldschmidt.