I despise it when people say things like “If you find something you love, you will never work another day in your life.” It’s a cute saying, but it’s not true. Regardless of how much you love your chosen profession, there will be times when it is hard. There will be times when you are frustrated, stressed, and angry. It will, sometimes, feel like work. And that’s okay.
In addition to being factually inaccurate, it’s not helpful.
The other challenge with statements like this is that it sets a false expectation. When we try to create something new in our lives, there will be times that it will be tough. And when we act like it won’t, we set people up for failure. When they come across challenges, they think they must be “doing it wrong.” It is supposed to be all rainbows and unicorns, right? So if it’s gotten hard, then this must not be my calling. I should just quit.
It’s better, instead, to plan for the hard.
If you are planning to do something you have never done, you will need to do things you have never done. When you do that, your brain won’t always like it. It will try to talk you out of it because it’s outside of your comfort zone. There will times you don’t feel like it. And it’s in those times, you have to push through and do it anyway. It will be hard.
If you know that, it’s better to plan for it. What will you do when it’s hard? Will you meditate, listen to music, read a blog post or take a walk? Will you pull out your goals and read them to get you fired up or call a mentor? What will you do that reconnects you to the goal or the mission? How will you get back on track? What will you do with the hard?
Seth Godin talks about this “the tired.” For most of us, if you try to train to run a marathon, there will be times when you are tired. There is no way to run a marathon without being tired. There is no book that says “how to run a marathon without being tired.” So Godin asks, where will you put the tired?
You have to figure out what you will do when the hard shows up.
If you know it’s coming, and you have a plan when you see it, you are more likely to keep going when it arrives.
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Kirby Hasseman is the CEO of Hasseman Marketing, a full-service marketing agency located in Ohio. Learn more about Hasseman Marketing here. And if you are interested in having him speak at your next event, you can learn more here.
