Sometimes You Just Have To Grind
Today is Monday. On Mondays I send out an email to my email list. On Mondays I get all my drafts in queue ready to publish throughout the week. I've got a vet appointment for the dogs in an hour. Then I still have to cook. I have a meeting tonight as well.
Despite working from home, it's a busy day.
On top of all that, I try to stay true to a publishing schedule here inside Wealthy Affiliate, publishing 2-3 times per month. My last publish date was back in August. I should get something out today.
Sometimes, when there's work to be done, you just have to grind.
"Inspiration Is For Amateurs"
I think a lot of people have the impression that you have to be smart or skilled to make money, but in my experience, that's not really the case. Just showing up and getting the work done has been a mantra for many of the things I've accomplished in my life so far, and the same is true for building successful affiliate blogs.
One of my favorite ways to visualize this is that scene from one of the Kill Bill movies where Uma Thurman is learning the 3-inch punch. Her Sensei makes her punch the wood over and over and over again until her knuckles are sore and bleeding.
She repeats this process over and over again, without knowing what the end goal is. She is just supposed to trust the process. It seems like a waste of time to her, but what she doesn't realize is that the skill will come in handy later.
Later in the movie she gets buried alive in a coffin and the only way to get out is to punch her way through the wood. She only has enough room to perform this special punch she learned, and of course her knuckles are calloused and as hard as steel now.
It turns out, all that useless, aimless, practicing she did before was useful after all.
Getting Better Isn't Sexy
Sometimes, when it comes to the day to day grind of running a business, it can feel like you're just punching a piece of wood with no aim at all.
- Did I pick a good keyword?
- Am I writing this article right?
- Is my niche too competitive?
- Should I really be spending my time on this?
- What am I doing wrong?
- Why isn't my site ranking yet?
Fear, doubt, and frustration can keep in. It happens to all of us, even myself!
I keep thinking back to Uma Thurman punching that piece of wood, and I just keep grinding. Some days it does suck to be honest, but I'd rather be complaining at home with a up of coffee playign some vaporwave tunes than sitting in an office somewhere or digging a ditch.
It's Similar To Learning A New Language
When you learn a new language, the transformation of your understanding is amazing. On day one, it can seem like all the words run together. It's literally a foreign langauge to you. Nothing makes sense.
Then you can catch one word out of 20. Then you catch a few. Then you get the gist of a conversation. Then you can respond in single words. Then you can do some basic back and forth. Then you can talk to locals. Then you can improvise and understand context without knowing every single word in the conversation. Then you can understand more subtle differences between synonyms. And so on.
The transformation of understanding a language doesn't happen overnight, and you need to spend a lot of time listening to something you definitely do not understand to reach that point of catching your first word in a conversation.
The Path Has Been Blazed. Keep Following
The Wealthy Affiliate training has been proven over and over again during the past 15 years.
Some days, you may feel like what you're working on is useless, or that you're doing things wrong.
My advice is to keep moving forward. Keep grinding. This isn't some crazy new business model or invention where you aren't sure if it's going to work or not. It works. Affiliate marketing works. Buliding blogs works. Wealthy Affiliate works.
Recent Comments
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I've definitely experienced the roller coaster emotions of business. Hahahaha. Sometimes, you're on a high because what you're doing seems to be working, then on another day, you could be looking at the same processes and wondering if they REALLY work like you thought. It happens, and like you said, we have to keep making progress and pressing forward.
Your description of how one learns a new language is excellent! Your analogy to learning new skills based on a similar incremental process is right on.
Psyching ourselves into the fortitude needed to grind through the discomfort of unfamiliar experiences, is perhaps the greatest skill one can develop. Once we master the fortitude, NOTHING can stand in our way! ...unless we allow doubt to creep into our psyche.
Sometimes it can feel like a grind. That's when it's important to regroup and recollect that determined fortitude to push through that barrier. I'm usually tempted by distractions away from my most important tasks. This has been my greatest struggle. I appreciate your encouraging posts.
Yeah, very often the day to day seems like a grind. Well, it is a grind. Nothing fun or sexy about it. When you look in the rearview mirror though, you can see how far you've come, just like you mentioned about regrouping and reassessing.
Gotta come up for air every once in a while!
I appreciate the consistency of your posts. I know exactly how it feels to wonder if I am doing things right. Especially since no income is coming in yet... but I know eventually it will.
I put in a little bit of time everyday and get an article up every once in a while. Sooner or later the traffic will start to get better. I know that consistency, and quality content is vital to getter "there".
Blog posts like this one keep reminding me why and how to keep going.
Thanks and I wish you the best!
Bob
Another great point Robert - consistency counts for a lot, whether it be simply getting work done, or reaching out to your target audience. Knowing that you'll be around each day, no matter what, available for questions, comments, or content is BIG.
Love the analogy
Over the pandemic I decided to learn how to draw. Something that Ive always wanted to do. But never thought I could learn. Anyway, this one lesson was to draw a line over and over again. A line. One single line. This is really stupid. How can I learn to 3D art by drawing one single line? Then it happened. I finally understood the lesson. That's art. Putting a bunch of lines on paper.
The line lesson gave me muscle memory so that I could draw a line in any direction. I don't even need a straight edge or ruler. The same for a circle. Now my lines and circles are pretty accurate not perfect but accurate. Now, my newfound knowledge has given me a new drive to carry on with WA.
Still waiting to get the site ranked and visited.
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I can relate very well to what you’re saying, Nathaniell. The days can seem like a grey neverending story, with seemingly nothing that comes out of it. And then suddenly the reward of all your work appears.
Flight school was like that, long hours learning all the theory, training passes in the air trying your knowledge out, again and again, and then suddenly it is graduation and you are awarded your wings. All those long hours and frustration converting in to success 😃👍
Thank you for a great post!
Roy