Sterling Terrell

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Hard Work And Discipline

Hard Work And Discipline

I don’t want to write a post about hard work and discipline.

You know why?

Because nobody wants to hear it. I don’t relish in it either.

It sucks.

We want the hack, the shortcut, the cheat.

I mean, who wants to hear that the only way to build or do anything meaningful is to consistently work your face off over a long period of time.

Don’t get me wrong. You can inherit money, or have a friend give you a job, or win the lottery. But all those things are people giving you something.

I am talking about starting with nothing and creating something yourself.

  • You get better at pull-ups by working hard at pull-ups for a summer or two.
  • You learn to walk by falling down over and over.
  • And you build a blog by posting everyday for a decade or two.

Understand: The grit of it all will get you a long way down the road.

Franklin, 50, and Zen Master Hakuin all agree.

“No problem, Marc. And I want you to remember something: This isn’t just about pull-ups. You know what else this is about?” I wasn’t quite sure. “I don’t know.” Uncle Jake grabbed me by both shoulders and looked me straight in the eyes and said gravely, “This is about everything. Everything. Just think, two months ago, you couldn’t do any pull-ups. At all. Zero. Now you can do TEN. All it took was a good plan and the discipline to execute the plan. To DO IT. That’s what it takes. And you can apply that to just about anything. If you are willing to do the work—you can make things happen. And like I told you, no one else is going to do the work for you. Sure, you might get some help along the way. But you might not. Who knows? What we do know is this: Hard work and discipline are how you achieve things. You have to make things happen. And that is exactly what you did here, and what you can do with almost anything in life. Remember that.”

-Jocko Willink, The Way Of The Warrior Kid

Stick With It

Stick With It

Whatever you want to get better at, stick with it.

I remember this – almost daily – with my writing.

See, most successful writers begin writing in high school or college. They work for the school paper and get a degree in Journalism or English.

At 22 they get a job as a reporter or staff writer somewhere. They start blogs or become editors and, at some point, eventually get a book deal or work their way into a syndicated column.

Most of this “success” happens between the age of 40 and 50.

My point is this: Most successful writers have been steadily writing for over 20 years!

So why beat myself up over something I have been doing, consistently, for less than five years?

You don’t get down on yourself either.

Most people successful at anything have been doing it for over 10 years.

Because the truth is that getting better takes time.

This is true for agriculture, and for our theology.

So don’t quit.

Because prodigy is a myth. And because Benjamin Franklin and 50 Cent agree.

You can quit tomorrow maybe, but not today. Ok?

Don’t quit today.

If I were learning to play the piano, I wouldn’t denigrate myself if I wasn’t any good at it when I started. Even after five or six years of practice, I’d be getting better but would be nowhere near as good as someone who had been working at it for more than ten years. That would be expected. So why did I quickly shame myself and feel awful because I wasn’t already a master at business and writing? These were learned skills too. This revelation switched my entire attitude toward my work. My job was to stick with it and keep going . . . to use duct tape and chewing gum if necessary to keep my shoes together . . . to do whatever was necessary to just keep crawling in the direction I was heading.

-Tim Grahl, Running Down A Dream

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