What Are You Working For?

Every time I teach a class, I tried to ask my students what they are working for. Whether it is a fitness class or a public speaking class, students always say they want to get stronger—stronger muscles, stronger minds, stronger wills.

But on the way to pursuing these goals, things always seem to get in the way.

• We meant to study, but then our friends invited us to go out.
• We meant to get up early to work out, but then we had an extra beer the night before and it was just too hard to wake up early.
• We meant to stop spending so much time scrolling social media, but then one story caught our eye, and before we knew it, an hour had passed.

We are all excellent at coming up with excuses and making it harder to reach our goals, me included. These examples come from my own life, and I am a bit embarrassed to say they have all happened multiple times.

Sometimes it is hard to remember that the only way we get stronger is by working hard and consistently. To make progress, we have to show up and do the work—day by day, week by week, month by month, and year by year.

We are not working to do what we know we can do. We are working to find those little surprises inside—those little moments that keep us going and make us stronger.

Hopefully these moments happen often, but what if they don’t?

• That is when we decide not to give up and to keep plugging away.
• That is when we have to remember that if we want stronger muscles, stronger minds, and stronger wills, we have to work hard.
• That is when we remember that consistency is key.

There are no shortcuts.