Love the Grind.
There are days when the Grind is tough, really tough. One brush with the Grind can erase ten good things that happened. It feels personal. The Grind tests your mettle and forces you to choose – to create your own way, or follow everyone else; to find and learn and discover, or to sit complacent.
But without the Grind, what’s the point? If it were easy, everyone would do it. The Grind shows that you’re going in the right direction.
The worst case usually isn’t that bad, and living to avoid it is living fearfully. The best case usually never happens, and living to acquire it leaves you perpetually unsatisfied.
The Grind are opportunities to learn, opportunities to improve, opportunities to remind ourselves that we choose this. Maybe not the events that happen to us, but how we respond to those events. Choose to do hard things and expect that the journey will be hard. Walk the path of happiness, not the path to it.
Even when the Grind kicks us in the shins, the day offers so many gifts so that we can scoff and laugh at the Grind, because it’s just the Grind. It’s not our life.
My son wakes up every morning callin “Daaaa – Deeee.” His first words today were – “I wonder where that silly Elf is going to be today. I heard him flying around last night using his magic.”
“Really. You did?” I asked.
“Yeah. Now let’s go find him.”
Crisp mornings. Morning Pages. Five-mile lunchtime runs. A hawk resting on a tree branch. A walk around the block. $0.50 refills. Hot soup. Persimmons. A clean kitchen. Milk. Coffee in the pot, ready to brew. Words buzzing through my fingers. Warm sheets. A good night’s sleep. 4:30am alarms. Early mornings. A new day tomorrow. Knowing that the Grind will be there to greet me.
I know it’s there. I smile. I’m ready. Because I love the Grind.
Go Farther.