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Life is work. And work is hard.
But a full schedule doesn’t necessarily mean a productive day. When you see a colorful mosaic on your Google Calendar, you may commend yourself for working so hard even if it isn’t the case.
Work didn’t always mean “keeping busy.” Work, perhaps a long time ago, was done out of necessity and survival. Today, much is done to stay busy. Like the Red Queen said in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, we have to sprint as fast as we can just to stay in the same place.
At the same time, work grants us purpose and responsibility. It feels good to finish a day of work, even if it wasn’t productive. Rethinking work can help us work smarter and better, which then uplifts everyone around us.
Let’s categorize work into two parts: the Discipline and the Mountain.
The Discipline is what happens everyday. This is the type of work that comes before attempting a challenge. The process of honing a craft, accumulating hours, logging miles — the everyday stuff necessary before a grand undertaking.
I have days where I write for hours and it’s all garbage. Though I produce nothing on those days, the work gives me momentum and practice. Discipline becomes the goal. I can still feel good about showing up, even if nothing concrete comes of it.
The Mountain comes later. You can attempt the Mountain before the Discipline, but you will flounder. The Mountain will reject you because you haven’t put in the required work to attempt it.
Writing one blog post a day, for example, is the Discipline. Writing a book is the Mountain.
Running everyday for six months is the Discipline. The marathon is the Mountain.
Tackling the Mountain before the Discipline takes gusto and arrogance. A brashness and miscalculation of what is required to attempt something big. People who have never written anything outside of school have asked me for advice on writing a book. They don’t like it when I tell them to start writing everyday, but to write something other than the book.
There’s no adrenaline rush that comes with The Discipline. Everyone wants to run the marathon right away. That’s the triumph, the achievement to call home about and post about on social media. No one is there to watch your quiet hours of practice leading up to the Mountain.
But if you show up for the Discipline long enough, the Mountain will follow.
And here’s a secret: After awhile, the Mountain actually becomes inevitable.
Intentional, challenging work is scary. Difficult work makes us nervous to attempt it because it presents risk. There’s something at stake when there’s potential to fail. It can hurt knowing you’re the one responsible for losing or winning.
But breaking work into two categories simplifies things.
It can minimize hesitation, and set the stage for something memorable and excellent. If you show up, practice enough, sweat and cry enough, it is more likely that you’ll find yourself in a position to achieve something.
The Discipline can not only take you to the Mountain, it turns you into the type of person who can scale Mountains. With the right preparation, your Mountain becomes less imposing.
That means you become more competent, skilled, and valuable to yourself and your team.
When you do this, you show those around you how to do the same— how to show up, minding the Discipline before the summit. The quiet practice.
So go and do the work. We all need you to. Show us how it’s done.
Make your Mountain inevitable.
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