#123: Putting In The Work.

What a joyful day! It made me scroll through a list of quotes to find the one describing my day best. I fell for this one by the American author Carlos Castaneda.

“We either make ourselves happy or miserable. The amount of work is the same.”

We make it and beware of the input.

Happiness or misery don’t just fall upon us. The one or the other is the result of our actions, our work, the blood, sweat and tears we put into it.

What I like most about it is that the output isn’t a function of the quantity of the input.

We all know that “from nothing, nothing can come”. I am sure Castaneda signs up to that. Both happiness and misery involve work.

The popular saying also goes that whover puts in the work, as is often measured in the number of hours, shall be rewarded over time. But no, more input doesn’t automatically result in the desired outcome. If you were digging your hole in the wrong direction, you wouldn’t make your situation any better by digging faster or asking someone else to help you dig deeper.

Castaneda just refers to “the same”. If “how much” was no longer the question, then it would be all about “what”. Instead of doing more of the same, ask yourself if you are actually doing the right thing. I read it as a praise on effectiveness as opposed to efficiency or productivity.

So what is our limited ressource we should focus on?

Time? Can’t be as we all have 24 hours a day available to us.

People? Possibly, but not “the more, the merrier”. Select those you surround yourself with carefully.

Ideas? Sure. And this is an area where we need “more” in order to come up with “one” having the potential to make a difference in terms of happiness or misery.

Unsurprisingly, the mix makes all the difference in my view. My formula goes like this.

To spend the right amount of time on the right topics with the right people in order to come up with those ideas that really make a difference to you and others and to then deliver on them.

Nobody said it would be easy. There is no such thing as a free lunch either. You have to put in the work. Make something. Measure the output. Change. Start again.