… Welcome to the Grind
You all may of encountered this video, audio or the general ‘Welcome to the Grind’ statement before. I was listening to my iPhone music earlier whilst working through my MBA Thesis and this track came up on random:
It brought back some strange and fond memories, all generally from my pre-MBA days when I was in full-flow of marathon training (its strange how things turn out!)
This video though got me thinking and now that I don’t get as much time to focus on my running, cycling and swimming it brought to light a number of other points from a career development, leadership and personal development perspective
“The voice you have chosen is one of defiance”: Do you strive for the very best in both our personal life and careers? If not, why not? To achieve the best possible results you need an self-motivator attitude. Focus on your career development!
“For what is each day but a series of conflicts between what is the right way, and what is the easy way”: Is taking the easy way out really the best way? I wrote a post a few weeks ago about continually operating outside of your comfort zone. Why not do this from both a professional and personal perspective?
“… and when you choose to turn your back on what some will call comfortable or common sense… well that’s Day 1”: Does it really take much to turn your back on bad habits? Research suggests six weeks to completely rid a habit but it all starts from day 1!
“The easy way out will always be there to wash you away… “: How tempted are you to when the going gets tough to back-down and take that easy way out? Challenge yourself and look to find your limits
“You’re in a fight against an opponent that you cannot see. But oh you can feel them. Feel them breathing down your neck. You know what that is? That is you!”: Arguably my best part of this video clip… How easy is it for you to listen to your self-conscious in the multitude of excuse you give yourself? It needs to be ignored… as noted above, you could argue its designed to give you the easy way out
“Remember what we’re fighting for and remember that momentum is a cruel mistress. She can turn on a dime with the smallest mistake”:What will happen if you cave in to old habits during the formation of new ones? Chances are you will go back to old habits and re-enter the cycle of earlier points
“Victory is the only thing that can keep you alive”: What is it was a life-or-death situation for your career? Treat your career in this way and surely you will always come with your ‘A’ game
“But when your time comes and a thousand different voices are telling you that you aren’t ready for it, listen instead to that lone voice of descent… the one that says you are ready!”: After watching the video and reading the above, just how much do you really need to listen to those voices that tell you that you can’t do something? Demonstrate leadership. Focus on your career. Just go ahead and do it!
… Welcome to the Grind!
Stephen Baines is a Management Consultant and MBA student currently working for Hewlett-Packard and studying at Manchester Business School. The views within this post are explicitly those of Stephen and have no representation of any organisation Stephen represents. If you wish to contact Stephen, please contact him via LinkedIn or his Twitter handle (@baines1986)
Note: Credit for images goes out to SaintLeoLions and Jerry Dobson (via YouTube)
