Metrics of Success. Most of us have a few. Is Ease one of yours?
Having Ease as a metric of success doesn’t mean running away from the work.
It means staying in place until you can move towards it, with joy, eagerness, love, or at the very least, a sense of lightness.
Sometimes, that means changing the way you view the work. Perception is everything.
Sometimes it means changing the work, so you do it in a way that you enjoy. Leveraging your strengths. Making it fun for you. Knowing your Core Desired Feelings and asking yourself – what do I need to do, to feel the way I want to feel?
“Hard” work doesn’t pay off as much as people are led to believe. Smart work does! Fun work does!
And it’s not the actual work. It’s how you feel when you are doing it!
If you want to believe that “hard” work pays off – go right ahead. But it’s an excuse to keep you going in someone else’s direction. 'Cause if it’s something that’s aligned to you and your direction and who you are… it doesn’t feel like hard work.
Think about it.
I remember spending evenings and entire weekends teaching myself how to cut code. It felt juicy. Satisfying. Mega rewarding. And frustrating at times. Overall, I felt competent, smart and proud of myself.
I did it and loved it because it was tied in to my vision of who I was in my role (job) at that time. And it expanded my capabilities and increased my opportunities immensely! To an outsider it looked and sounded pretty hard. And I could say that it was. But I'll tell you truth - most of the time, I was in my zone, enjoying it.
So let’s stop propagating the myth that “hard” work pays off.
And start using the feeling of Ease as a metric of success. Especially if you believe that you’re here for the journey!
Photo cred: Jenny Xenos