The Work Just Needs Doing

The work just needs doing.

Nothing more, and nothing less.

The essay needs writing, the food needs cooking, the weights need lifting, the bedtime needs to be respected, the phone needs to be put down, and the doing just needs to be done.

This short essay is mostly a letter to myself, but I also hope it helps at least one of the readers from my small readership. (smiley face tear emoji).

If you’ve set out on any endeavor, whether it be starting a business, getting in shape, building on your faith, fixing your relationship, gardening, or anything… there will be work. And if you are anything like me, as much as you romanticize the idea of working towards your goal in your head, in actuality you will do very little of that.

You will consume materials endlessly on ‘how’ to do the thing. You will journal tirelessly on how ‘why’ the thing matters. You will sit and strategize on the best ways to go about the thing. But you won’t spend that much time doing the thing. I don’t know why there is so much resistance to doing the necessary work, and I truly admire the non-anxious people who can just chug away all day and make things happen, but up until this writing, I was not that person.

That is until I was introduced to a few core ideas that I’ve jotted down:

Anxiety about doing the thing is a form of pride. Now it took me a few weeks of ruminating over this idea to articulate it but I will try to explain it the best I can.

Anxiety by definition is a feeling of unease about an imminent event or uncertain outcome. More or less it’s the fear of uncertainty. The fact that something will happen that we cannot control or overcome, and so it instills fear in us. I reconciled that anxiety was pride because I believed deep down that I could control uncertainty. Only omniscient omnipotent beings can control the unknown. I’m just a kid from California. How arrogant was I to think that not only did I have anything more than slight influence over the future, but that I was clairvoyant enough to know the future was worth being afraid of?

I don’t know what the future holds, I can make strong guesses, I can have strong hopes, but just like a year ago I couldn’t predict I’d be writing this essay today, I have no clue what the next year holds for me.

So what do I have to fear? More or less, what do I have to lose by putting myself out there? Doing the work and waiting for the results, surely it can’t be worse than where I am now. Which leads me to my next point.

Where you are at now probably isn’t that bad, and you already have most of what you need.

If you’re anything like me you’ve searched enough. Your prayers have been answered long ago but you’ve glossed over it because you are so focused on lack. You don’t realize you’re standing on incredibly fertile ground, you just refuse to water it. Yes, the ground you stand on right now is fertile but you’re too busy staring at everyone else’s garden trying to figure out what fertilizer they got.

Stop.

Take inventory of all your accomplishments thus far. Take note of what you’re good at, and before you sell yourself short know that you are good at something. Maybe you just have to think. Show a bit more gratitude for how far you’ve already come and let yourself bask in that glow for a few minutes.

Stop letting yourself have shiny object syndrome or thinking you’re not good enough to at least start. You never get good at anything by just doing it one time, you get good by consistently doing it one more time. Don’t avoid doing the work because you think there is a skill or qualification out there you need to get started.

Start with what you’re already qualified to do, no matter how little, and keep doing it. The nice part about starting is you’re allowed to suck and be ignorant. That’s the only edge you need.

JUST SIT DOWN. You don’t need coffee.

Best piece of advice I’ve ever given myself. Just sit down and write. Sit down in anticipation of the desire to work, don’t wait for the desire to work to come before you sit down.

Let me paint an all too accurate picture of how I postpone the work that needs to be done.

I hear that small voice in my mind that it's time to work. I check my calendar and I realize it is in fact, time to work. I grab all my materials and move them to my writing area, sit down, and have a completely novel idea. Let's have a cup of coffee.

So I leave my work area and scroll on my phone for 15 minutes. I then grab all the requisite things to make this all too necessary hyper-amazing cup of coffee that will surely solve all of my problems. Once everything is gathered I begin to carefully make my cup of coffee. Checking my phone in the process. Once my cup is made I decide that I should enjoy it on the balcony….you see where I’m going.

We place these micro-hurdles and non-necessities right before we get work to avoid doing the work. The need for caffeine, one quick phone call, one quick YouTube video, and one more 1hr devotional to help get motivated. You don’t need another kick in the rear, just take a deep breath and know the work won’t hurt you. It never will. It will only get you closer to where you’re supposed to be.

You don’t need coffee, you just need to do the work.

In short, you have no clue what the future holds and there is so much outside of your control it's rather arrogant to think it warrants anxiety. You already have everything you need to get started, so just start where you’re at. That cup of coffee does not make or break you, the more ‘I must do/haves’ you put in front of the work that needs to be done the more fragile your work ethic will become.

Do the work that needs doing, everything else will figure itself out.