The real reason we work isn’t what we think, it’s the awe we’re after, not the money.
If you are asked what your primary motivation to work would be, your first reply would be money… “I work for money.”
Are you sure that’s it?
Money is good, right, of course. We expect that the fruits of our labor- regardless of whether the work is physical or mental, menial or rocket science, result in some type of compensation, usually money. That is reasonable and logical but now since you’ve thought about it, you know that money is the easy answer but it’s not the only answer to why you spend hours, days, weeks and sometimes much longer periods of time struggling to “get it right.”
Once we commit to a project, whether it is a new business, a new book, a new way of eating and exercising or planting a new garden, we know we’re in for these 5 things:
- Struggle
- Study
- Failure
- Experimentation
- And then, finally, Got it right, Eureka!
And to feel alternatively these 5 emotions:
- Excitement and enthusiasm
- Disappointment
- Frustration
- Anger
- Awe
It’s the awe we’re after.
The hardest part of the decision to do whatever we have decided to do is not on the list because the anticipation of the new project is where many fail.
We read from the experts over and over again that the reason for the failure of a new anything ( business, life style change, diet or exercise plan) occurs because we never start… we’re overwhelmed by the study, the frustrations, the disappointments, the struggles and the experimentation which are never experienced because we never get started.
Successful people do not get mired down in anticipation; after an analysis -which might be minutes or days- they make a decision and launch into all of the steps which must be done. Contrary to the hype, we learn that the Brady’s and the Gates’ and the Jobs’ have failed as much as they have succeeded.
They know that failure is a possibility. But they start it anyway.
Why?
Because successful people get hooked on the work itself.
They learn through gritted teeth how to endure the frustration, struggle, moments when they want to throw their computer at the wall and the failures.
Each writer, businesswoman, marketer knows that there will come the time when they revel in the work… when it seems effortless, when they feel like an instrument.
That is why they are almost always extremely humble about their success.
They are in awe at what has been created and they know from the deepest marrow of their soul, that the creation resulted from a type of partnership with something quite outside themselves.
It’s the awe we’re after.
