What is worth the hard work?
In my first year of business school, I did something uncharacteristic of me. I played with dialing down my ambitions and the effort I put into certain classes. I knew in business school that my grades didn’t matter externally—recruiters weren’t going to ask for my GPA. What was most important for me was learning the concepts and using the time in school for exploration, experimentation, and building relationships.
Typical of many schools, we had a class with a team Capstone project. At the start of the semester, my team collectively aligned to our ambition: were we okay with getting a B? We agreed that a B was fine and that it was more important to not drive ourselves crazy. We did the work but didn’t kill ourselves, unlike other teams. The outcome—a solid B, graduation after our second year, and successful careers. What’s more, at the end of the semester, there were four business school students who were a whole lot happier, less stressed, and not burnt out.
In the last newsletter, I asked: “What is your work?” Today I’m asking: What is worth the hard work?
How often do we make these assessments around our ambitions or the projects in front of us? Are we okay with dialing down our ambition and reducing our effort, or do we care about an ambition such that it is worth the effort?
In the definition of ambition—“a strong desire to do or to achieve something, typically requiring determination and hard work”—there are two elements:
The aspiration
The associated effort
Ambitions are where we desire to put effort. Hard work is often linked to when we are in flow or when we find the right interest against which we want to put effort. In fact, our ambition can change if we find the right goal or topic that lights us up, and then effort follows.
Yet hard work can take a dialing in, too. When we allow our ambitions to take over and we drive too hard, there are downsides (research has shown it can lead to lower levels of happiness and health over time). Too little effort and we can feel like we are stagnating and not making progress.
I loved a story I heard while tasting wine at Antinori, a winery in Napa Valley. The winemaker at the U.S. establishment was sharing how her boss, the head winemaker from the Italian headquarters with 635 years of winemaking history, likes to keep his employees “at a slight boil.” Probing what that meant she said, “He wants you to be slightly nervous because he believes it brings good tension to the wine.” I loved this analogy—the idea of keeping ourselves at a slight boil, stretching with ambition and effort but not at a roiling boil that would have the water splash outside the pan (i.e., stretch ourselves so far that leads to frustration or burnout). Perhaps it’s another way of thinking about putting ourselves into a flow state.
So I ask again: What is your work that is worth the hard work? What are your ambitions where you are willing to put in the energy and effort?
It’s worth asking to help dial in the appropriate effort put to different activities in our lives. For example:
Is making a pivot worth the hard work that will be required (which relates to our featured podcasts below on making a career switch)?
Is it worth being consistent and persistent with one’s work as one ages if there is still a desire to succeed (as featured in E74 of the podcast and written about in The Formula: The Universal Laws of Success by Albert-László Barabási; age is not a limiter to success)?
Is it worth asking these questions and considering how you are applying your time, energy, and effort to find more sustainability in life+work?
As we enter these last months of the year, consider: What is your work that is worth the hard work?
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Note: The image for this post is from an exhibit of work by Guo Pei. For Guo Pei, her visions and the artistry behind each piece is worth the hard work.
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