Why You Should Continue to Grind for Success

Why You Should Continue to Grind Away for Success

^{Photo: diane39 via iStockphoto}

How often do you think about achieving success—whatever success may look like for you?

Whether you are a blogger, author, or startup entrepreneur, you probably think about succeeding in what you do more often than not. You think about how your life would change if only you would get to that level of success you imagine. Oh, how your life would change. Your life would be so much better. You would be so happy and successful, right?

And yet success often seems so far away from our grasp. It may seem to take too long to reach the level of success you want. Why is success taking forever? Is it maybe beyond you?

You can get frustrated by the slow pace that success is taking to reach you. And you may wonder why success is taking so long. You have been working at it for so long and you don’t seem to be making any real headway. Urgh! Should you give up already and just try something else?

More often than not you should continue to grind away. That is often the only way to achieve success.

Giving Up vs. Continuing to Grind

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Many people experience that type of frustration in their lives and careers, and the temptation to quit is real. Bloggers want to quit when it seems they are taking too long to make decent revenue from their blog to live on.

Startup founders feel this frustration as well when it seems like it’s taking an eternity for their startup to get off the ground. Authors too are not spared either; when their hope of getting published and hitting the bestseller list seem like a very, very tall order—many authors feel like quitting.

There is wisdom in knowing when to quit and try something else. When it comes to knowing it’s time to cut your losses, your gut is a great ally. You quit playing the piano when you were young and similarly quit shooting hoops competitively at some point. There is no shame in quitting something when you know in your gut it is not right for you; when something makes you nothing but miserable.

Sometimes the decision to quit is the right one. However, when it comes to achieving success, it’s the grind that ultimately make the difference. As Guy Kawasaki says regarding his success, "What I lack in talent, I compensate with my willingness to grind it out. That's the secret of my life."

Reasons to Keep Grinding Away

It’s the grinding away process that is responsible for the majority of success stories you see and admire, rather than some hidden secret or magic formula used to achieve “overnight success.”

Grinding away is really the “secret” ingredient. This means staying the course and working in a steady, methodical, and determined way, improving and adapting your efforts as the need arises.

So, the magic formula for success can be boring. it is . . .

Sitting at the table every morning and doing focused work consistently, rain or shine, whether it’s working on a writing project or sending out connection invites via email every day.
It’s making a commitment to publish one or two articles a week and never ever skipping publishing.
It’s pushing yourself to reach out to influencers, walk up to strangers and introduce yourself and your business.
It is putting in the work, day after day, no matter what—even while holding down a day job.

It would be easy to just not grind away each day, week, month, and year, but that is often the only option you have for success. Success requires an impeccable work ethic—doing the necessary work is inescapable.

You need to dig deep, learn as much as you can, experiment, improve, grow little by little, and keep grinding away to reach success and achieve more of your goals.

Here are more reasons why you should embrace the grind and continue to gring away for success:

I. It builds resilience and makes you admirable.

Many successful people who are envied and admired across industries, like Michael Jordan, J.K Rowling, and Jay Z have gone through significant amounts of sacrifice, pain ,and struggle to get to where they are. They’ve been resilient and persevered over challenges.

As Theodore Roosevelt once said: “Nothing in the world is worth having or worth doing unless it means effort, pain, difficulty… I have never in my life envied a human being who led an easy life. I have envied a great many people who led difficult lives and led them well.”

II. It is an essential part of growth and development.

The grind is about completing the small, simple tasks and continually setting larger, long-term goals which you pursure in a committed manner for growth and development.

It’s about discipline, willpower, and dedication. It’s about grit, focus, and determination to succeed. It’s about grinding on after you’ve met your initial goals. It is pushing yourself to become the best version of yourself that you possibly can, which inevitably advances your life and career.

III. It keeps you grounded and appreciative.

With all of the challenges that undoubtedly present themselves in life, grinding away will keep you grounded. You’ll appreciate the small wins more.

It’s easy to relax, become overconfident and prideful when you always win instantly. Anyone can celebrate big wins. But when you’re grinding away, you’re more appreciative of the small steps that lead you to success. This gives you the energy, mental fortitude, and positive attitude to thrive.

Greatness and success go hand in hand with overcoming challenges and maintaining a good attitude throughout.

Remember that each day is an opportunity to step up and put in the work. Be grateful for the oppotunity, and put your best foot forward each step of the journey.

Success comes from the grind. Grind hard so you can play hard!