Not all work is created equal.
When you’re building something big, there’s going to be work that you just don’t enjoy doing.
While some people will tell you that “being passionate” about what you’re doing will cure all ills, it won’t. Sometimes you’ll love the work that you have to do, but sometimes you’ll loathe it.
Here are four things I do to try and want to do the work I have to do.
1. Don’t procrastinate.
One of the easiest things to do is avoid the hard things we have to do. Don’t let that happen.
Procrastination usually doesn’t look like procrastination at first. We’ll give it aliases like “patience” or “preparation,” but that’s just putting lipstick on a pig. When we procrastinate, we let the fear build up inside of us. We stress out. And as if that isn’t bad enough, that stress begins to negatively affect other aspects of our work.
Treat the work you have to do the same way you’d treat a bandaid: rip it off quickly.
Attack the hardest things right away, and you will fall in love with how it feels to knock it out.
2. Fall in love with the process.
Building something big is a process.
It takes focus, dedication, a little bit of vision, a lot of very hard work, and a thousand other things. Most importantly, it takes time.
Mash all of those things together and you’ve got a big, long, sometimes grueling process.
If you’re not in love with that process already, then force yourself to fall in love with it. Already in love with it? Then fall madly in love with it. Already madly in love with it? Good, now marry it.
It’s a privilege to go through the process.
3. Build a process.
Everything up to this point has been philosophical and fluffy. Let’s get pragmatic for this one.
Unless you intend on handling the crappy stuff for forever, then begin to build a process around it so that others can do it for you. This applies to so many aspects of business.
Take a day to write out all of the work you have to do but don’t like doing.
Break those things down into steps, and add details.
With that one simple exercise, you’ve taken the most important step towards outsourcing the work you don’t like doing. You can now delegate a thing or two to someone else. You can even begin to outsource it if that makes sense for you and your business.
It’s much easier to love the work you don’t have to do.
4. See the pain as payment.
Of all the incredible business people I’ve ever met, there wasn’t one who hasn’t had painful moments along the way.
There are some people out there who will try as hard as they possibly can to sell you a fantasy about business. They’ll tell you it’s easy. They’ll tell you it’s painless. They’ll tell you that the cure to all of this is to do the work you love.
I’m not in that camp.
Actually, I’m in the complete opposite camp. This stuff is supposed to hurt at least a little bit. Sometimes, this stuff is supposed to hurt a lot more than just a little bit. The pain is payment. The sooner we embrace that idea, the better we’ll become at using it for our own benefit.
If you avoid growing pains, then you won’t grow emotionally, mentally, or financially. It just won’t happen.
We’ve got to stretch. We’ve got to hurt.
It’s necessary.
Start embracing the pain, and the tough work won’t seem so tough.
It’ll just seem like the next step.
—
Photo: Flickr/foam