From Hustle & Grind… to Joyful Diligence ❦

Photo by Jay Castor on Unsplash

The mainstream perspective about being consistent and disciplined can be summarized as “hustle and grind”… a state of busy activity that suggests an underlying layer of struggle and suffering.

Many of us have grown up with such teachings:

• Be “hard” working — to work with diligence, hardship and strife
• Delayed gratification — to reward yourself *later* after you struggle with the “important” stuff
• “Eat the frog” — get the hard thing out of the way by swallowing (doing) the highly unpleasant thing first (basically, delayed gratification)

There is always an alternative…

We can bring joy and meaning into any work that we do.

And then, to rest and renew deeply.

Practicing this rhythm — joyful work, then deep renewal — gives us deep fulfillment everyday. Our life becomes like heaven.

Yes, we should do what is important, high leverage, and what is challenging and growing.

But if we fixate our energies on specific outcomes (that were probably created by our ego or someone else’s), that is when we turn our process into struggle. We might miss the…