Are you grinding? Are you REALLY grinding? That’s the question I had to ask myself. The idea for this first episode of The Mind of Hirsch came from that moment when self-doubt hit the tipping point. It was a lovely sunny day this summer and I was just about to finish lap one of two at Lake Padden. That’s usually the distance where the thoughts of quitting start to pop into mind. Just before that second wind there is that moment when you doubt what you’re doing. The legs start to feel it, the chest is heavy, the spit thickens and your brain starts talking. “You’re too slow, you’re not strong enough, you’re out of shape.” It was in this moment that I realized that voice was right. Sort of.
Last winter I had set a goal to run in the elite heat of a Spartan Race for the first time. The date was quickly approaching and my training schedule was looking like a peer reviewed college essay. Workouts slashed out, others written in, days of the week shifted ahead or shifted back a few days, mini goals jotted down and erased or moved. It was a zoo. Life likes to throw you curveballs. When you think you have everything organized and planned out, the things you didn’t plan for show up. Sick days, sore days, last minute work adjustments, travel, family time, the list goes on.
All of this stuff started to flood into my head while I was running. I knew that I was too slow, I was out of shape and I wasn’t strong enough. Not for the goals I had set myself. I wasn’t grinding as hard as I needed too. My actions did not meet my goals. It was time to re-evaluate. I feel like this is the point where a lot of people call it quits. When you are under the impression that you are “grinding” but then you fall short of your goals you have to then look yourself in the mirror and ask the tough questions. If you jump to blame other things, you’ve already lost and you won’t win by simply changing the game to something else. If you fall short of your goals it is entirely your fault. I had to conclude this for myself. It wasn’t because I didn’t have the time, it wasn’t because other people where in the way, it wasn’t because I’m too tired, or the weather. It was simply a fact that I wasn’t as dedicated to the process as I needed to be.
Before we jump into solving the problem let’s take a look at ways the problem can be created in the first place. It is so appealing to be “on your grind.” Our culture has fantasized entrepreneurship. Everyone wants to be one. Everyone wants a side hustle. Everyone wants to grind. The crazy truth is that life is a grind. So, it’s going to feel like you’re grinding no matter what. Just doing what it takes to eat, sleep, breathe, pay bills and exist, takes work and can feel overwhelming. So, when you set goals that are far above and beyond just living it takes another gear. It’s easy to post a few pics each week of you at the gym or a few pics of you “hustling” to make a few extra dollars. And that gives us the appearance of grinding and can convince us that we are as well. In reality those next level things we want actually take next level work. I’ve fallen into this trap as well. “Here’s my daily post from the gym.” “Here’s a pic of me at Lake Padden after my run.” “Here’s a bowl of fruit I had for breakfast.” Boom, check the box, I did my daily grind post. But uh oh, it’s been 3 months and no progress. What happened?
The term grinding needs to get thrown out. It’s been overused and played out to the point where it no longer means what it should. If you have big goals you have to want to bleed for them. You need to center your day around them. You need to lose sleep because you can’t stop thinking about what your next move is. You’re going to get up early each day and get started. Skip lunch because you have one more thing to check off your list. You’re going to be tired. You might cry. You should feel like maybe this is too much. Maybe this is more than I really want. That is when you know you’re grinding. It takes constant effort, laser focus, and constant evaluation. You have to check in with yourself and ask the really tough questions. Am I doing enough. Am I doing the right things. It takes some serious honesty.
Let’s make a list
1. Set a goal
2. Research the process
3. Organize the steps
4. Start checking the boxes
5. Evaluate progress
6. Adjust the process
7. Start checking new boxes
8. Evaluate the progress
9. Adjust the process
10. Start checking new boxes
Repeat, repeat, repeat until you get where you want to be. This takes some serious motivation. So, where do we find this motivation? I could write numerous blogs on this topic. There is motivation every where and it can come in many forms. For today I want to focus on one very important aspect of motivation. If you don’t feel like your goal is pulling you towards it then you’re probably chasing the wrong goal. Lou Holtz has a great quote about motivation when he was asked about it in his college football players, “motivation is easy, eliminate the unmotivated.” My high school coach has a poster of this hanging in his office and it really resonates with me. Eliminate the unmotivated. As a college football coach, you have such a depth of players lined up to play for you that you don’t have to waste time motivating players, simply remove the player and find the next guy to step up. For me this means, eliminate the goals that aren’t motivating in themselves. Maybe your goals are too broad, maybe they are goals that you are influenced to have by other people, maybe you have grown to no longer desire the goal you originally set.
Make sure you set your goals because they are things that YOU want. Not society, not your parents, friends, coworkers, or coaches. If your goals aren’t something that you want with the entirety of your being then you are going to have to seek other methods of motivation. If your goals are really something you are hungry for you will be pulled towards them. Then you don’t have to constantly search for things to push you in the right direction. Find what pulls you and never give up. A life spent chasing your passion is a life well spent.
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