Success Means Struggle

The “work to succeed” approach doesn’t make you successful. Many people assume that working harder, longer hours, being “always on” etc. will finally – one day – make them happy. They will reach their goals and live happily ever after. Until then it’s

• routine
• toil
• struggle.

Even in case you just work 9 to 5 without trying hard to succeed the daily rat race is an ongoing struggle. Every day costs a lot of effort.

Even getting up can be a huge burden when you are struggling daily. In the evening you’re too tired to do something else than watch TV.

Sometimes you’re too strained to fall asleep. Your mind is running amok.

Crazy thoughts are overtaking you and you are anxious, stressed and dejected. Sounds familiar? This is the norm. Most people in the West live like that.

 

It Could Be Worse

In Asia or Africa it’s even worse. People struggle to stay alive. They go hungry or can’t afford to send their kids to school.

Teens work 80h shifts in factories to manufacture your sneakers or iPhones. They barely can pay for food and the rent for their dormitories that look like concentration camps behind barb wire.

In contrast billionaires do not have to work a lot it seems. Just look at the current US president.

He owns a multinational corporation and leads one of the largest democratic countries in the world. Yet he spends many days playing Golf and crushing weddings.

Yes, I said it: working more, harder or even “smarter” alias more efficient won’t make you rich or happy. The more you struggle the more you fail. Indeed struggle is just another word for failure.

 

The Tao of Now

In ancient China the solutions for our current malaise have been already practiced. Luckily the legendary sage Lao Tzu has written the ancient wisdom down in the Tao te Ching.

One of my favorite quotes by Lao Tzu is “nature does not hurry yet everything gets accomplished”. In his writings Lao Tzu also advises us to “act without expectation”.

What does that mean? When what you do is only a means to an end you will be unhappy when performing it.

When you act expecting a fixed outcome anything that isn’t the exact outcome you anticipate is a disappointment.

Thus even when working hard and long hours, smart or efficient you will still be unhappy at the end of the day.

Your outcome still won’t be what you expected in most cases. Even if you try harder, smarter or more you will likely fail. Those un/lucky enough to actually become

• billionaires
• celebrities
• Olympians

won’t be better off. In fact they may be even more unhappy despite the billions, the magazine covers and the Olympic medals. Once people reach

• the destination
• the thing
• the person
• the place

that was meant to make them happy or mean the ultimate success will be a milestone at best. The happiness will subside rather quickly.

There is an easy solution for all those woes. You need to enjoy the process. You need be where where you are and do what you do.

When you think of the outcome you imagine a fictitious future based on a selectively memorized image of the past.

You can’t focus on the task at hand. Instead you reproduce patterns you learned in early childhood, most often unconsciously.

The ancient Chinese practiced the so called Wu Wei – roughly translated “here and now”.

When you are in the Wu Wei you are “in the zone”. There is no effort to what you do. You are in the state of flow.

This does not only work when you have actual tasks to perform. You can tune in to the universe and ride the wave of success.

My favorite Zen master – Seung Sahn of the Kwam Um Zen school – said it quite clearly: “the hungry shall eat, the tired shall sleep.”

For many years I thought he just wanted to be funny. I didn’t discover the wisdom in those words until later on.

People often do the opposite. They work until they are dead tired. I was no exception to this “rule”. When

• your back is aching
• your eyes are blurry
• you combat sleep

using large amounts of covfefe [sic!] or other drugs – you are doing it wrong! You are basically burning yourself out.

 

Struggle vs Flow

Science proves that after a few hours of work per day you break more things than you actually make.

I’ve done that in the past when I was a front end web developer a lot. I would obsess about a bug until late in the evening. Sometimes I would even break the whole code I was working on to find it. To no avail in most cases.

After a night’s sleep I would locate and fix the very same bug I spent hours the evening before within minutes.

On some days I wasn’t that lucky though. While searching for the bug I had removed such big chunks of vital code that the functionality of the script – like a website menu – was gone as well.

It’s not just about working less. It’s not just about efficiency. Ideally you do not work at all.

Either work becomes play so that you enjoy it or you automate tedious tasks or both. Struggle does not make you happy or productive. It only makes you sick.

Of course in real life you will always face situations when you have to do things you dislike for some reason.

For example I enjoy walking the dog very much. No matter how often I do it I still don’t enjoy removing the dog crap though. It stinks.

Even though I have a tool to grip it so that I don’t touch it like most other people I still don’t enjoy smell. I can make it worse though.

For example when I’m stressed and hurry my dog will do his “big business” in a place that’s embarrassing. It can happen in a park in front of people doing a pick-nick for example.

When you are in the flow everything happens at the right time in the right place. You cease to oppose of the universe. Effort is only needed when you swim upstream while ignoring the stream.

The dog will literally stop where the sun shines so I can enjoy the moment and the trash can will be a few feet away.

 

Pain Is Inevitable; Suffering Is Optional

When I train parkour – which is quite unusual for a middle-aged man – I sometimes experience pain. I may slip or land wrongly for example.

Pain is always like a message. It says: you’re doing it wrong. Stop. Change something. Suffering can ensue or anger can arise but doesn’t have to. You can choose your reaction.

There is no use in being mad at the wall because you hit your knee on it.

The same applies to tasks and struggle. You may have to perform a task for many reasons. Someone asks you to do it or it’s simply one of the daily chores.

You can decide be perform it as fast as possible because you detest it. You can try to get rid of it. Instead of preparing a meal you can “call a pizza”.

Your wish to do something else or be in a different place altogether makes you unhappy – not the task at hand. You can choose to perform it mindfully – that is with great care.

Yes, you can choose to enter the state of flow even when performing tedious tasks like washing the dishes.

For example I will choose to things like vacuum cleaning mainly with my left hand to make it more challenging.

This way every mundane activity becomes a meditation. You align yourself with the universal flow and enter that state without digressing – thinking about yesterday or tomorrow. You start enjoying things.

 

Tasks vs struggles

To come back the pain and suffering quote – tasks are inevitable but struggles are optional.

You can perform tasks when you’re at peak energy and when they have to be done. You don’t work for the sake of being busy. You can go for a walk on a sunny day without feeling bad.

A good balance between work and rest is a guarantee for high productivity. That’s why Ford implemented the 40h work week roughly a century ago. It was not a humanitarian act or bowing down to the unions.

Doing more does not equal achieving more. You have to know when to act or when not to.

When you try to swim upstream, working at night or on Sundays, making calls from the playground while attending your kids – you won’t succeed. You will be stressed though.

Stress decreases your productivity. In capitalism many people work until they burn out because they can get replaced easily. Once your health is ruined the next one will enter the furnace.

When you work on your own terms as a

• freelancer
• business person
• entrepreneur

you can’t do that. Nobody can replace you. Or in case someone does you won’t be there anymore to benefit from it in most cases.

 

Act only when needed, don’t just be busy

Don’t struggle or strive to get things done and make money. Wait until the right moment and then act.

Frantically trying to make it is tiresome but the success even when it arrives is a bittersweet one. Some people do not even have the time to spend the money they earn.

 

Don’t fall for the trap of efficiency

When you’re efficient at the wrong task you won’t achieve anything either. You dig your own grave efficiently and many people indeed do metaphorically speaking.

Some people even die of exhaustion at work. A recent case from China highlights that dire situation many of us face.

 

Select the tasks you want to perform carefully

In the early days of my business I would send offers to everybody who approach me, sometimes several per week. Even though I re-used some part of the offers I needed some time to assess each site and look at the particular issue.

I was always in a hurry when i started my freelance career. The offers I sent were mediocre at best because I thought I would get some clients at the end of the day trying to reach all of them.

After I few years I learned the hard way that trying to get each and every client was hurting my business both in the short and long run. I started to become more selective, even during downtimes.

 

Remind yourself of the big picture

When money comes into play we often forget what we really want. We tend choose what’s lucrative or what pays instantly.

Yet it matters whether a task is aligned with your true self or whether you are supporting businesses you wouldn’t purchase yourself.

Is it hard work? You are not only toiling on the fields anymore. We’re not peasants, we’re creatives.

Does this task make you happy, even in case it’s hard work? Do you watch the clock when doing it? We’re not workers at the assembly line either.

 

Recharge frequently

When you run out of energy it’s a sure sign that you need to rest. Simple, isn’t it? Yet most people ignore that sign for manifold reasons.

Some people wait until pain or even sickness arrive to tell to stop. Some even ignore the pain or sickness and only subdue the symptoms.

1. You need to recharge as often as needed. Is it hard to focus? Take a break.
2. Does your body or head ache? Go for a walk, take a shower, eat something.
3. Do you experience an overall productivity slump? Go on vacation!

You can’t achieve anything when your energy level is low. Your actions might even backfire because you become nervous, error-prone and moody. Only act when action makes sense. Being busy is not a badge of honor.