Working Hard on the Right Things

Hard work isn't enough if the work is aimed at the wrong thing. I made that point in a May 2023 discussion about consistency, training and coaching. You can be disciplined and still spend your time practicing a bad approach. More effort alone doesn't fix the direction.

I think it helps to be honest about which pursuits matter most to you. If bowling is an occasional hobby, you don't need to organize your life around getting better at it. If you're serious about a business, a craft or a sport, you can't expect the same results from showing up only when you feel like it. The level of commitment should fit the goal.

Keep showing up when it stops feeling new

Consistency gets tested on the ordinary days. Starting something exciting is easy compared with continuing when the work is repetitive. In the discussion, I described choosing to do the work even on a day when I wasn't looking forward to it. Once I had started, I often found it easier to put in a real effort.

That doesn't mean every task is worth doing forever. It means that when I've chosen something important, a temporary lack of enthusiasm isn't, by itself, a reason to abandon it. I can keep the commitment and still ask whether the work I'm doing is moving me toward the result I want.

The second question matters as much as the first. If I'm repeatedly working hard and getting nowhere, I shouldn't congratulate myself for the effort and ignore the outcome. I should examine the method. What exactly am I practicing? What result is it producing? What am I missing that someone more experienced might see?

Let a good coach challenge the method

When I want to learn something seriously, I look for people who have already done it well. They've made mistakes that I don't need to repeat. Their advice is valuable precisely when it tests an assumption I'm attached to.

That can be uncomfortable. I described receiving feedback I didn't want to hear and noticing my first emotional reaction. My next step was to slow down and ask whether the criticism was true. If it was, what might happen if I ignored it? Would fixing it be worth the effort, given the goal I had chosen? Those are more useful questions than deciding, in the first few seconds, whether I liked the way the feedback felt.

A coach can still be wrong. I don't have to accept a criticism just because it came from someone with experience. I do need to examine it honestly, especially when rejecting it would let me keep doing what is familiar. Good feedback can show me that I'm putting consistent effort into the wrong technique.

In my article on asking for the feedback people hesitate to give, I focus on getting a specific, useful answer from someone who can see my blind spots. The work here comes after the answer arrives: checking it, deciding what to change and then practicing the better approach consistently.

The goal isn't to collect praise for working hard. It's to put that effort where it can make a difference. Choose the pursuit that deserves your time, keep showing up, and be willing to change the method when the evidence says you should.