How To Love The Grind

[renegade_bee]

Hi, I was wondering if anyone had any tips on how to fall in love with the grind that is the deciding factor between succes and failure? All I read is people saying to "just fall in love with it" but forcing yourself to love something sounds very contradictory to me. For example i'm in the process of starting to learn guitar and music to make a career out of this but I'm already 18 and even though I love music with a passion I can't shake the feeling that I'm wasting all the hours I'm putting into it.

[Truth]

Well, think about why they tell you to love it, doing it for the love takes out all the pain that you might feel learning it, the failure, all the failures become redundant, and learning the music and being able to play it becomes worth it.

Me personally I've been playing guitar for about 6 years, and I play because I love it.

The beginning stages are a struggle, annoying, painful fingers ect. But the more you do it, the more you get better, the more you'll be able to love it. 

as Leo says, "Feel that burn, and learn to love that burn."

 

as for the wasting time, that's up to you, you're still very young so, give it a month or two and see how it goes. 

Edited February 11, 2016 by Truth

[Yang Noctus]

Hello Matthew (Awesome name!)

As you know, the beginning is the hardest, learning the basics, grinding the same chords and fingerpositiong over and over again (Boring! I've tried it for a few weeks) Sucks but it's like growing a tree, and once that tree will bear fruit. What i remember from one of Leo's videos is where he talkes about the ''Mastery Mindset", This mindset is all about enjoying the process, you should make the grind fun! A question you can ask yourself ''How can i make the process more enoyable?" Some examples: You could start a band, make friends who are into guitar and have jam-sessions with them etc. Learn a few chords and then learn some easy songs you can play with those chords and brag about it to your friends! 

What I've learned when it comes to motivation, you can motivate yourself, use micro-momentum etc. And i believe that with enough willpower and self-discipline you can do it. But the real thing is Inspiration, once you are inspired and take action on your inspiration everything becomes much easier, you'll love the process, self-discipline will be a breeze and before you know it you you'll play the guitar like a badass, So my message is get inspired and make the proces enjoyable! It's not about the destination, it's about the journey.

Cheers!

Mathieu (Matthew)

 

[J. M. Wigglesworth]

The grind. I think the problem is in part with what you've chosen to call your path. Why not call it a magnificent adventure? You claim to be intensely passionate about music so how could you possibly be in energetic alignment with something as dull as "the grind". Don't be mistaken. You still need to take massive, consistent and deliberate mastery building action but why make it so boring. Remember, even in a magnificent adventure, you still have to walk every step of the way and experience wonderful and difficult things. 

 

Also-if you feel like your wasting your time- you should try to remember that this particular leg in your journey is just a little bit long. Otherwise, if you're truly committed, keep deepening your roots and your skill and try to love every second of it. Progress isn't always evident but that can't stop us from trying to progress. What choice do we really have? To throw away our dreams and get a 9-5? You gotta push through to true north, where all the trials, resistance and frustrations lay. The reason they say you've gotta love the grind(once again, I don't prefer this term), is because you're going to do it anyway so you might as well like doing it.  I'm an aspiring author so you can say I've been through this a bit. Heck, I still feel this way most days. Oh well...

[Argue]

You're not truly passionate if you feel like "you're wasting hours." 

You wanna fall in love with the grind? Then you need to have a burning desire! 

Thomas Edison was "LOVING THE GRIND" to create the light bulb. He failed 1000 times just to get it right. Now that's "loving the grind."

To love the grind, you want to have it bad.

The Wright Brothers loved the grind and never felt like they wasted hours when creating the airplane. 

Drake is loving the grind about his music and doesn't stop recording. He practically lives in the studio. 

Hope this helps. 

 

Edited February 14, 2016 by Argue

[Phocus]

On 2/11/2016 at 8:55 AM, DrMatthewsausage said:

Hi, I was wondering if anyone had any tips on how to fall in love with the grind that is the deciding factor between succes and failure? All I read is people saying to "just fall in love with it" but forcing yourself to love something sounds very contradictory to me. For example i'm in the process of starting to learn guitar and music to make a career out of this but I'm already 18 and even though I love music with a passion I can't shake the feeling that I'm wasting all the hours I'm putting into it.

I find that I am happiest with "the grind" when I focus on being very present.  Focus your total attention on exactly what you're doing at that moment and how your body feels.  Do let your mind wander and think about how you're not where you want to be or you could be doing something else more valuable with your time.  Those are important thoughts to have, but not while you're actively practicing.

Think about what you want to accomplish, and then commit yourself to it completely.  Afterwards, reflect on what you've done.  But do not let that disrupt your practice.

[Guest]

I recommend getting a copy of George Leonard's book 'Mastery' (a favourite of Leo's). It's all about disengaging from the results of your actions and learning to love the process. Here's a quote I found for you:

'Contingencies, no question about it, are important. The achievement of goals is important. But the real juice of life, whether it be sweet or bitter, is to be found not nearly so much in the products of our efforts as in the process of living itself, in how it feels to be alive. We are taught in countless ways to value the product, the prize, the climatic moment. But even after we've just caught the winning pass in the Superbowl, there's always tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow. If our life is a good one, a life of mastery, a large part of it may well be spent on the plateau.'

Worth a read!

[Midlife Crisis]

I play guitar and I know what you mean. It can be hard. But starting to learn from scratch is never easy. Try to find tablature for songs you like or that inspire you. Learn them. Then find some people to jam with, and learn from them. Even if you are not fast on your scales, just slowly grind through them and learn them that way you can just know what is going to sound good up and down they neck. There are always new things to learn with guitar, if one style of playing is getting old to you then switch to a different style and try that out for a while.

[Guest]

Try reading "So Good They Can't Ignore You" by Cal Newport. The common notion of passion is largely a myth. We bullshit ourselves into think we have passion, when that is actually unknown to most of us. True passion is cultivated after thousands of hours of deliberate practice. 

If you want passion, just get to work.

Also, remember that practical aspects of doing anything are still important. If your passion leaves you broke and clipping coupons to find your next meal, then you probably won't be as passionate. That's all stuff you can read about if you decide to make the effort.

[DanoDMano]

On ‎2‎/‎11‎/‎2016 at 4:00 PM, Yang Noctus said:

Hello Matthew (Awesome name!)

As you know, the beginning is the hardest, learning the basics, grinding the same chords and fingerpositiong over and over again (Boring! I've tried it for a few weeks) Sucks but it's like growing a tree, and once that tree will bear fruit. What i remember from one of Leo's videos is where he talkes about the ''Mastery Mindset", This mindset is all about enjoying the process, you should make the grind fun! A question you can ask yourself ''How can i make the process more enoyable?" Some examples: You could start a band, make friends who are into guitar and have jam-sessions with them etc. Learn a few chords and then learn some easy songs you can play with those chords and brag about it to your friends! 

What I've learned when it comes to motivation, you can motivate yourself, use micro-momentum etc. And i believe that with enough willpower and self-discipline you can do it. But the real thing is Inspiration, once you are inspired and take action on your inspiration everything becomes much easier, you'll love the process, self-discipline will be a breeze and before you know it you you'll play the guitar like a badass, So my message is get inspired and make the proces enjoyable! It's not about the destination, it's about the journey.

Cheers!

Mathieu (Matthew)

 

@Yang Noctus  Love the post. I don't like the wording of grind either. To me having to grind at something means "going against the grain". Through my life, if I felt my actions were grinding (to a halt?) then this meant my intuition was telling me something. That perhaps this activity is something I'm not meant to do or strive for. All of the success I've had in life, seemed to have no grinding elements at all, and in fact everything seemed to flow almost effortlessly and with purpose. Not to mention the continued joy and satisfaction I felt through the process and it's fruition as well.

Maybe others have to go through this grinding process to ultimately succeed at something they love and truly want to do, I just didn't experience this and whenever I did, always found something else to strive for and succeed at. But... that's just me and perhaps not true to for everyone.  

[JevinR]

Masochism , Pain = Pleasure

[ayokolomo]

I use this word grind alot.  After my son and nephew finish their homework, I have a,"grind" session, literaly call it the grind.  Here they each have to do an extra 50 math questions.  They are easy questions but it is about building mental strength to embrace the extra work needed.  The same goes for the martial arts where they have to throw each other an additional 25 times at the end of practice.

Essentially my view is that the grind is never going to be "enjoyable" it is where discipline and heart take over from enjoyment   In my view if it is fun it is not part of the grind.