Do The Work

Ever heard the apocryphal anecdote about the famous artist - Pablo Picasso? According to the tale, a woman approached Picasso in a marketplace and asked if he could do a quick drawing for her. He obliged, and thirty seconds later, he hands her a remarkably beautiful little sketch. “That’ll be thirty thousand dollars” he says. But Mr. Picasso, the woman quibbled, “how can you charge me so much? This sketch only took you thirty seconds!”. “Madame”, replied Picasso, “It took me thirty years”.

Oftentimes, we tend to focus on the outcome as opposed to the process. We fail to recognise the hard work, dedication and perseverance that lies behind achievements. Popular belief has it that we can “wishfully” manifest things into existence; that if “you dream it, you can achieve it”. However, what’s typically omitted is the requisite work needed to manifest such dreams into reality. It should come as no surprise that dreams on their own aren’t enough, we have to take specific and strategic actions to actualise dreams. While this is common knowledge albeit not common practice, the aim is that this write-up serves as a gentle reminder that to become successful in any area of life, we have to stop wishing and start doing.

We’ve become accustomed to wishful-thinking and our thoughts have become consumed by the words I wish…I wish…I wish I could have a career that earns me a lot of money, I wish I could have “this” or have “that” but we seldom recognise and embrace what it actually takes to get what we want. Wishing has somewhat become a distraction from the underpinning effort required to create our desired outcome.

For some, the dilemma is - "how much work is required to become successful?”. You’ve probably heard about the “10,000 hours rule” made popular by Malcolm Gladwell in his bestselling book Outliers. The idea stipulates that the key to achieving world-class mastery of any skill, is, to a large extent, a matter of practicing the correct way, for a total of around 10,000 hours. Gladwell states that “ten thousand hours is the magic number of greatness”.

While Gladwell’s opinion remains a matter of legitimate conjecture among researchers on the exactness of time or effort required to become successful, one certitude is that behind success lies an often invincible, consistent and repetitious effort. The milage in our brain is what develops the muscle memory for mastery to occur.

Surprisingly, some still believe in the idea of “luck” being a possible contributory factor to success, but I’ll like to rid you of the delusion that luck exists. What is often termed as “luck” is the point of convergence between opportunity and hard work. To quote Mr. Picasso himself, “opportunity exists, but it must find you working”.

What will get you your desired outcome are intentional, incremental and compounding effects of your consistent efforts. Once you know the why behind what you want, consider the work behind the want and be prepared to do it. The focus should always be on the process, not the outcome because the outcome usually takes care of itself when we dedicate ourselves to the process.

Remember - “It takes years for a person to become an overnight success” - Prince

Peace, Love and Light.