August 29, 2024 • 12 mins
This episode dives into the concept of doing the work for its own sake, drawing inspiration from Steven Pressfield's The War of Art. It emphasizes the importance of showing up every day and committing fully to the task at hand, regardless of the outcome. Whether it's sweeping floors, building a business, or pursuing personal growth, the focus is on consistent effort and mindfulness. By detaching from results, one can stay grounded, avoid burnout, and eventually reach meaningful achievements—sometimes even beyond the original goals. It’s about putting in the work, day in and day out, and embracing the journey.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
So I was just finishinglistening to the book The War of Art by Steven Pressfield, and I
(00:06):
think I talked about thisrecently, but the book is mainly about a force he calls resistance, and it's what stands between you and getting the shit
that you need you know needs toget done, done. And
at the end of the book. I don'tremember
who said it, or exactly,probably misquoted a little bit, but the idea was like,
(00:32):
do, do the work for the work'ssake,
and not for, you know, whateverelse. So it got me thinking about
work and why we do work and allthis kind of stuff, and then being super connected to the outcomes of what we do. So like, if you work at a company and
(00:55):
you're doing the work and allyou're doing it for is the paycheck, like this is just a means to an end.
In theory, and I'm sure noteverybody's like this, but in theory, you're not going to do you're not going to put as much into the work as you would if
you were doing the work for thesake of the work. And the idea behind that, my understanding is like,
(01:19):
sort of along the lines of what
can't remember his name, the guythat wrote the Untethered Soul, he did a, like a lecture series, where he was talking about the work as as sort of a form of
meditation, and how,
how all work is important.
And
(01:39):
he said something like,
you know, even when you'resweeping the floor, if that's your job, is just to sweep the floors to, you know, put everything you got into that
into that job, and do the bestjob possible, because it's important. It's important work. And so some people may look down on that, that kind of work,
(02:00):
like, oh, all he does is sweepthe floors around here. Like, I'm an executive, and you know, my job is way more important. But like, the guy that sweeps
the floors, his job is also veryimportant. Like, he's making the place nice for the next people to come in. He's making the place nice for the customers and
(02:20):
all this kind of shit. And theother people on the team, it's important work. So if you're putting in,
you know,
if you're, if you're doing, ifyou're gonna do the task anyway, regardless of what it is like, why not put everything you got into it? And when I say that, I
don't mean like, fucking
like, go crazy about it, but,like,
(02:43):
I guess, kind of, like, don'thalf ass it, if you just go, go all in and make sure the floor is swept perfectly, and
kind of, on this floor sweepingthing, but that's not really the point.
But it's like a form ofmeditation, you know, when you're doing, when you're when you're getting fully into the work, like it's
(03:04):
it's another way of practicingmindfulness. So when you're, if you were sweeping a floor and you didn't allow your mind to go in all these other places, and
you really put your focus onwhat you're doing, regardless if it's like a mundane task, then
that is a form of disconnecting,and, you know, from your own shit that's going on in your head. So that's, that's one thing you could put into the
(03:30):
work. But then the other thingis, like,
the way that Steven Pressfieldis talking about it is he wasn't really talking I'm kind of mixing up different shit here, so hopefully I'm not messing it
up. Too bad.
The War of Art, the book is moreabout following your calling. So he says, you know, this former resistance is keeping you from doing the thing that you know
(03:52):
you're you're sort of meant todo. So
it could be anything from
like he's talking about it a lotof
being an artist or being acreator or something like that,
and resistance also shows up,
(04:13):
you know, when you're trying tobetter yourself. So if you're trying to create better habits like reading every day or getting exercise or getting in
better shape, or, you know,things like that. There's, there's going to be a great deal of resistance there.
I'm losing my train of thought.
(04:36):
Oh, I know, I know what I wasgetting at. So all of this sort of make me think about being connected to the outcome. And that's what I
think, that's what I was reallyaiming to talk about, is like,
like, I do a lot of work, and alot of times I've been very connected to the outcome. And so when I'm doing this stuff, I'm thinking of, what's the.
(05:00):
Of this thing going to be, and a
lot of times it kind of holds meback a little bit, so I won't put out certain things because, well, that's how it used to be. I'm not quite like I don't think
about it this much anymore, but
disconnecting from the outcomeand just going all in on the work, because the work needs to be done,
(05:22):
I find it's a lot. It's veryhelpful to move forward. And you could think about it on a lot of different ways. So
some of the more common ones islike, if you're growing a business and you're doing all this stuff you need to do, especially in the beginning
stages. Most businesses, they ittakes time. It takes a long time for a lot of your efforts to start,
(05:48):
you know, to to start showingresults.
And so I think that's why a lotof people get frustrated, is because they're so connected to the outcome. So they're like, Okay, I'm going to put in 12
hours a day,
which you know it is what it is.I don't, you know, there's different ways of looking at it, but if you're building a business, you're putting in all
these hours, and you're notseeing really a whole lot of growth, people tend to get frustrated. And I think that's where people give up when things
(06:17):
get hard, because they're reallyconnected to the outcome. And then you can look at it from like a physical health standpoint, like, if you're
overweight,
you know, you could be eatinghealthy and exercising for several weeks before you really even notice anything. And so being connected to the outcome,
(06:38):
like looking at the scale allthe time or or looking at yourself in the mirror and
not really seeing any changes,that can be frustrating and that kind of derails you. But when you disconnect from the outcome and realize like,
this is the work that has to bedone, like, I have to do this amount of exercise, I have to eat this kind of food, whatever it is that you're doing to get
(07:01):
yourself to where you need tobe, that's the work that needs to be done. Regardless of what happens, like what the outcome is,
you're gonna have to do thatwork anyway. So even if it takes longer, or if you hit these plateaus, or, you know, it takes a long time to ramp up
every day, you just have to dothat work. And if you're sitting there focused on the the end result, it's it tends to be frustrating. And I kind of, I
(07:33):
feel this, actually, I feel thisall the time, like, mainly in business, but I guess in physical health also. But it's like
when I when I'm connected to theoutcome, and I'm looking at like,
like, in my business, like, Iput in this, and then I look at the sales numbers, and if the sales numbers aren't what I want them to be, I get frustrated,
(07:53):
and it it makes it harder to dothe work, because I'm, like, really connected to like,
you know, is The businessgrowing? Is this stuff that I'm doing working? But if I'm doing things that I know works, you know, like, there's certain
levers that I can pull in mybusiness that I know works, but it doesn't mean like I'm going to pull the lever and then all of a sudden, all this money is
(08:14):
going to start coming in. It'slike you're going to pull the lever, you're going to wait, then tomorrow you're going to pull the lever. The lever is a
metaphor for the work.Obviously, you know, so every day you do the work, and
you may not see results for awhile,
but we're at a stage now where,like, I've been doing that for a long time, like this business,
(08:38):
I've been really grinding awayat this business for
almost 10 years now, like weopened the first machine in 2015
I started the company in 2002 asa motion graphics company, and I've talked about that. 2015 I opened the graph shop,
and I still feel like we haven'teven started, like I still feel like we're warming up, like we're getting we're getting things figured out, and then
(09:06):
we're really gonna fucking hitthe ground running. You know, it's like,
Andy Priscilla talks about this,like every day is day one. No matter how far down the line he gets, every day is day one. I feel like that's like a really
good way of being disconnectedfrom
the outcome, the the end result.Well, in business, there is no end result like you're
(09:29):
just going to keep
well, maybe for some people, notfor me, but
yeah, every day is day one man.I mean, I think that's the the best way to look at it, and every day you're going to have to put in the work. And as
cliche as it sounds, that'sjust, that's just the reality of any kind of endeavor that you want to do.
(09:53):
And just, you know, I don'tknow, there's a lot more that you could talk about, like what worked, what's the right.
Work to do. What's the wrongwork to do? I don't know. I mean, I that's, that's a whole nother conversation. But if you're doing the work you know
need, that needs to be done,like an easy one is the physical health. If you know you're eating healthy, and if you're counting calories or counting
macros or whatever, if you'rehitting those numbers and you're exercising every day, that's the work you need to do.
(10:22):
And if it takes two months tostart seeing results, then it's going to take two months to start seeing results.
But if you keep doing it everysingle day for years, there's no way you're not going to get to where you need to go. You may need to adjust things and tweak
things like you're building abusiness, if you're trying to get better at graffiti, or better at art, or any of that kind of shit. If you do the shit
(10:45):
you need to do, like if you'retrying to get better as a graffiti writer, if you're practicing every single day, and you're you're doing all the shit
that you need to do,
the results are gonna come. Butwhen they're gonna come, it's not really up to you. It's just sort of like
(11:06):
it's gonna it's gonna happenwhen it happens. Or if you're trying to become a famous graffiti writer, and you're just getting up all over the place,
and people still don't know whoyou are,
you know, it doesn't change theout the work that's required doesn't change, you know, it's you're still gonna have to go out, you know, however many
(11:27):
times you can and do the workthat you need to do. And then eventually you're gonna, you may not get that's the other thing. I mean, I don't know if I want
to start a whole nother thing,but you may not get to where you think you're gonna go, but like, you're gonna get somewhere, you're gonna achieve something,
so,
yeah, disconnect from theoutcome, do the shit that's required, and
(11:52):
there's no way that you're notgonna achieve. I
don't want to say that you'regonna achieve what you want to achieve, because I don't know. But like you're gonna achieve something, and maybe it'll even
be better than the original idea
you never know.
(12:14):
All right,
appreciate each and every one ofyou guys who are supporting the cause and continue to spread the love and yeah, stay up.
So I was just finishinglistening to the book The War of Art by Steven Pressfield, and I
(00:06):
think I talked about thisrecently, but the book is mainly about a force he calls resistance, and it's what stands between you and getting the shit
that you need you know needs toget done, done. And
at the end of the book. I don'tremember
who said it, or exactly,probably misquoted a little bit, but the idea was like,
(00:32):
do, do the work for the work'ssake,
and not for, you know, whateverelse. So it got me thinking about
work and why we do work and allthis kind of stuff, and then being super connected to the outcomes of what we do. So like, if you work at a company and
(00:55):
you're doing the work and allyou're doing it for is the paycheck, like this is just a means to an end.
In theory, and I'm sure noteverybody's like this, but in theory, you're not going to do you're not going to put as much into the work as you would if
you were doing the work for thesake of the work. And the idea behind that, my understanding is like,
(01:19):
sort of along the lines of what
can't remember his name, the guythat wrote the Untethered Soul, he did a, like a lecture series, where he was talking about the work as as sort of a form of
meditation, and how,
how all work is important.
And
(01:39):
he said something like,
you know, even when you'resweeping the floor, if that's your job, is just to sweep the floors to, you know, put everything you got into that
into that job, and do the bestjob possible, because it's important. It's important work. And so some people may look down on that, that kind of work,
(02:00):
like, oh, all he does is sweepthe floors around here. Like, I'm an executive, and you know, my job is way more important. But like, the guy that sweeps
the floors, his job is also veryimportant. Like, he's making the place nice for the next people to come in. He's making the place nice for the customers and
(02:20):
all this kind of shit. And theother people on the team, it's important work. So if you're putting in,
you know,
if you're, if you're doing, ifyou're gonna do the task anyway, regardless of what it is like, why not put everything you got into it? And when I say that, I
don't mean like, fucking
like, go crazy about it, but,like,
(02:43):
I guess, kind of, like, don'thalf ass it, if you just go, go all in and make sure the floor is swept perfectly, and
kind of, on this floor sweepingthing, but that's not really the point.
But it's like a form ofmeditation, you know, when you're doing, when you're when you're getting fully into the work, like it's
(03:04):
it's another way of practicingmindfulness. So when you're, if you were sweeping a floor and you didn't allow your mind to go in all these other places, and
you really put your focus onwhat you're doing, regardless if it's like a mundane task, then
that is a form of disconnecting,and, you know, from your own shit that's going on in your head. So that's, that's one thing you could put into the
(03:30):
work. But then the other thingis, like,
the way that Steven Pressfieldis talking about it is he wasn't really talking I'm kind of mixing up different shit here, so hopefully I'm not messing it
up. Too bad.
The War of Art, the book is moreabout following your calling. So he says, you know, this former resistance is keeping you from doing the thing that you know
(03:52):
you're you're sort of meant todo. So
it could be anything from
like he's talking about it a lotof
being an artist or being acreator or something like that,
and resistance also shows up,
(04:13):
you know, when you're trying tobetter yourself. So if you're trying to create better habits like reading every day or getting exercise or getting in
better shape, or, you know,things like that. There's, there's going to be a great deal of resistance there.
I'm losing my train of thought.
(04:36):
Oh, I know, I know what I wasgetting at. So all of this sort of make me think about being connected to the outcome. And that's what I
think, that's what I was reallyaiming to talk about, is like,
like, I do a lot of work, and alot of times I've been very connected to the outcome. And so when I'm doing this stuff, I'm thinking of, what's the.
(05:00):
Of this thing going to be, and a
lot of times it kind of holds meback a little bit, so I won't put out certain things because, well, that's how it used to be. I'm not quite like I don't think
about it this much anymore, but
disconnecting from the outcomeand just going all in on the work, because the work needs to be done,
(05:22):
I find it's a lot. It's veryhelpful to move forward. And you could think about it on a lot of different ways. So
some of the more common ones islike, if you're growing a business and you're doing all this stuff you need to do, especially in the beginning
stages. Most businesses, they ittakes time. It takes a long time for a lot of your efforts to start,
(05:48):
you know, to to start showingresults.
And so I think that's why a lotof people get frustrated, is because they're so connected to the outcome. So they're like, Okay, I'm going to put in 12
hours a day,
which you know it is what it is.I don't, you know, there's different ways of looking at it, but if you're building a business, you're putting in all
these hours, and you're notseeing really a whole lot of growth, people tend to get frustrated. And I think that's where people give up when things
(06:17):
get hard, because they're reallyconnected to the outcome. And then you can look at it from like a physical health standpoint, like, if you're
overweight,
you know, you could be eatinghealthy and exercising for several weeks before you really even notice anything. And so being connected to the outcome,
(06:38):
like looking at the scale allthe time or or looking at yourself in the mirror and
not really seeing any changes,that can be frustrating and that kind of derails you. But when you disconnect from the outcome and realize like,
this is the work that has to bedone, like, I have to do this amount of exercise, I have to eat this kind of food, whatever it is that you're doing to get
(07:01):
yourself to where you need tobe, that's the work that needs to be done. Regardless of what happens, like what the outcome is,
you're gonna have to do thatwork anyway. So even if it takes longer, or if you hit these plateaus, or, you know, it takes a long time to ramp up
every day, you just have to dothat work. And if you're sitting there focused on the the end result, it's it tends to be frustrating. And I kind of, I
(07:33):
feel this, actually, I feel thisall the time, like, mainly in business, but I guess in physical health also. But it's like
when I when I'm connected to theoutcome, and I'm looking at like,
like, in my business, like, Iput in this, and then I look at the sales numbers, and if the sales numbers aren't what I want them to be, I get frustrated,
(07:53):
and it it makes it harder to dothe work, because I'm, like, really connected to like,
you know, is The businessgrowing? Is this stuff that I'm doing working? But if I'm doing things that I know works, you know, like, there's certain
levers that I can pull in mybusiness that I know works, but it doesn't mean like I'm going to pull the lever and then all of a sudden, all this money is
(08:14):
going to start coming in. It'slike you're going to pull the lever, you're going to wait, then tomorrow you're going to pull the lever. The lever is a
metaphor for the work.Obviously, you know, so every day you do the work, and
you may not see results for awhile,
but we're at a stage now where,like, I've been doing that for a long time, like this business,
(08:38):
I've been really grinding awayat this business for
almost 10 years now, like weopened the first machine in 2015
I started the company in 2002 asa motion graphics company, and I've talked about that. 2015 I opened the graph shop,
and I still feel like we haven'teven started, like I still feel like we're warming up, like we're getting we're getting things figured out, and then
(09:06):
we're really gonna fucking hitthe ground running. You know, it's like,
Andy Priscilla talks about this,like every day is day one. No matter how far down the line he gets, every day is day one. I feel like that's like a really
good way of being disconnectedfrom
the outcome, the the end result.Well, in business, there is no end result like you're
(09:29):
just going to keep
well, maybe for some people, notfor me, but
yeah, every day is day one man.I mean, I think that's the the best way to look at it, and every day you're going to have to put in the work. And as
cliche as it sounds, that'sjust, that's just the reality of any kind of endeavor that you want to do.
(09:53):
And just, you know, I don'tknow, there's a lot more that you could talk about, like what worked, what's the right.
Work to do. What's the wrongwork to do? I don't know. I mean, I that's, that's a whole nother conversation. But if you're doing the work you know
need, that needs to be done,like an easy one is the physical health. If you know you're eating healthy, and if you're counting calories or counting
macros or whatever, if you'rehitting those numbers and you're exercising every day, that's the work you need to do.
(10:22):
And if it takes two months tostart seeing results, then it's going to take two months to start seeing results.
But if you keep doing it everysingle day for years, there's no way you're not going to get to where you need to go. You may need to adjust things and tweak
things like you're building abusiness, if you're trying to get better at graffiti, or better at art, or any of that kind of shit. If you do the shit
(10:45):
you need to do, like if you'retrying to get better as a graffiti writer, if you're practicing every single day, and you're you're doing all the shit
that you need to do,
the results are gonna come. Butwhen they're gonna come, it's not really up to you. It's just sort of like
(11:06):
it's gonna it's gonna happenwhen it happens. Or if you're trying to become a famous graffiti writer, and you're just getting up all over the place,
and people still don't know whoyou are,
you know, it doesn't change theout the work that's required doesn't change, you know, it's you're still gonna have to go out, you know, however many
(11:27):
times you can and do the workthat you need to do. And then eventually you're gonna, you may not get that's the other thing. I mean, I don't know if I want
to start a whole nother thing,but you may not get to where you think you're gonna go, but like, you're gonna get somewhere, you're gonna achieve something,
so,
yeah, disconnect from theoutcome, do the shit that's required, and
(11:52):
there's no way that you're notgonna achieve. I
don't want to say that you'regonna achieve what you want to achieve, because I don't know. But like you're gonna achieve something, and maybe it'll even
be better than the original idea
you never know.
(12:14):
All right,
appreciate each and every one ofyou guys who are supporting the cause and continue to spread the love and yeah, stay up.
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