I’m about to publish the paperback and hardcover copies of my new book Agile Discovery & Delivery: A Survival Guide for New Software Engineers & Tech Entrepreneurs this week!! When I reflect on the project, I feel an overwhelming sense of pride and one other feeling: this book was a lot of work. I began the journey in October 2021 and here I am two years later finally able to get the book into the hands of my readers. It was hard work, but it feels really good — the kind of good you simply don’t get from taking the easy route. It’s the kind of good I feel after a long, hard workout or when my kids do something amazing and I realize that the hard work of being a parent for the past 13 years is really paying off. As Mr. Money Mustache says in his amazing blog on financial independence: there’s really no substitute for hard work.
Hard Work is Usually Hidden
The internet and social media especially are riddled with people bragging about their accomplishments. You can’t log onto LinkedIn, Facebook, or Twitter without seeing beautiful pictures of people’s kids, their trips, and what they’re doing with the companies they’re building. Even traditional media tends to focus on the extreme successes: the companies who IPO high or the investors that bought Amazon early on and are now swimming in cash. We hear stories of people getting a million followers overnight. What we don’t hear is how much work it took to get there.
Internet and media today are terrible places to gain a realistic perspective into how hard these accomplishments are to achieve. You don’t see the 80-hour workweeks that people put in to be able to afford their trips to the Caribbean. Or the early mornings that your favorite author spends writing her next novel. You certainly don’t see the pictures of sleep deprived parents wearing their pajamas covered in dried baby puke to their zoom meetings with their cameras off.
The hard work to do almost anything significant is usually hidden. And so what does society think about people’s accomplishments? It was easy. It was nothing. I can replicate this any time I want.
If it is incredibly easy to accomplish something, everyone would do it. We all enjoy the latest hit TV shows. Watching TV is easy. On the other hand, there’s a reason why only a small percentage of the population runs a company. Same for hiking the Inca Trail or running a marathon. They demand hard work and sometimes that hard work isn’t fun.
So Why Do Hard Things?
So, why even put in the work at all?
Because it feels really good when you do. And not just at the end, it feels good when you make incremental progress along the way. It feels good when you learn news things. It feels good to grow and meet new people along the way. I run most mornings for the feeling I get afterwards. It’s that amazing, “you did something hard, but it was so, so good for you” feeling that sets you up for success for the entire day. I don’t get that feeling from just any workout. I get it from the really hard ones. And of course there are side benefits — I get outside, I meet up with friends, I get to listen to podcasts which also help me grow. But that feeling, that sense of accomplishment when I’m done. There’s nothing like it! It drives me to get out of bed and do it again.
It’s the same feeling I feel about writing this book, just at a proportionally higher level.
What about the status and money and power you get from accomplishing something truly important? Yeah, depending on the project, you get some of that too. But status and money and power don’t feel very good in the long run. They fade. Sometimes they’re more trouble than they’re worth. I wonder if anyone is truly driven by those items? Probably? Or do they just like the incremental good feelings they get along the way?
Little by Little: How to Make Hard Work Feel Easier
While writing the book, the work I was doing didn’t always feel “hard”. I credit the following for making the hard work I was doing easier.
- I did a little bit every day. I committed to working just 10 minutes on my project every day. Some days I would do much more, but the first 10 minutes were crucial because they gave me momentum. Everyday I wrote a little bit more. It’s amazing what you can accomplish in a short amount of time when you are continually making progress. Before I knew it, my first draft, which I’d started in October 2021 was finished. That was February 2022.
- I found a community. I did this work with a community of online writers and creators. First, through Writing in Community 3 and now through Brainstorm Road. There is a community of people out there reading my work every day, commenting, and cheering me on. They bring accountability and friendship to a process that is largely a solo endeavor. It’s been wonderful to have these groups!
- I got into flow. Flow is that experience where you’re doing something hard, but not too hard and you’re engrossed in it entirely. So much so that you lose track of time. I tried to do my writing work each day in the morning. This is the time when I have the most energy and the best ideas. I’d section off time before my day became hectic and really settle into the task I’d planned that day. Sometimes I’d do my 10 minutes and be done. Some days, I would get really into the writing and the time I had set aside would pass like it was two minutes long. Flow feels just as good as hard work. Flow makes hard work seem relatively easy. It makes it seem effortless. (Which, by the way, is a great new book out by Greg Mckeown.)
Time to Enjoy That Effort
So, as I sit and wait for my final book proof to arrive in the mail, I feel really good about the work I’ve done. I wouldn’t trade any of that time for anything. Because now, I’ve got a book! I’m getting some important information into the world. It was hard work, but it feels great!