Embrace The Grind

Now that the holidays have come to a close, you may have been woken up by your alarm today, rolled over and resolved to “get back to the grind.”  Before you grab your same-old coffee and jump back into your work while keeping “business as usual,”

I want to caution you that nothing in your life is going to change until you do. The changing of the year is a powerful time because it is not only your opportunity to look back on what you accomplished during the previous 365 days, but also a time to look forward and set your sights on what you want to achieve in the new year ahead.

I am sure you spent some time in the last week of 2017 thinking about things you would like to have, do and see in 2018.  Even though this road may have been paved with good intentions, jumping right back into your work and life where you left off will only allow the resolutions you made to fall by the wayside.

When people use the slogan “Embrace The Grind,” I usually interpret it to mean there should be pride taken in a certain amount of hard work. In essence, it refers to the ability of someone to keep his or her head down and get work done.  Although the slogan seems noble and usually elicits a high-five from someone else, this statement is actually pointless without one ingredient added to the hard work: Goals. Hard work without direction can either get you nowhere or simply be a monumental waste of time. And there really shouldn’t be any high-fives doled out for that!

If you are going to set a goal for 2018, it might as well an ambitious goal.  Rather than setting an easy goal and hitting the mark quickly, it would be more worthwhile to set a challenging goal in which you have to work hard and develop yourself in its achievement.  On the way to big goals, I have found setting up checkpoints along the trip is the best way to keep you motivated to continue.  This way, you can better play the “game within the game.”

Sometimes people stop just before the big breakthrough was about to happen.  Although setbacks are going to happen on the way to your goals, you should remind yourself that when you stand on top of the mountain, all of the hard work is going to be worth it. You will find that oftentimes the little “extra” is all it takes to turn an ordinary day into an extraordinary experience.

The final lesson: Taking on big challenges gives you the strength and confidence to take on even more in the future.  I hope this was motivation for you to revisit your 2018 resolutions and gives you some tools to climb whatever mountain you set for yourself in the next year.

If you want more motivation to fire you up to take on the world. Check out our 8 Week Warrior Challenge below – it’s a great place to start!