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Be Proud
This past week, I was organizing my website and some of my files, and I realized that I have been sending Monday Motivation for over 6 months. Now, I recognize that this isn’t really a big deal, and probably doesn’t mean a whole ton to you, but this was a huge realization for me. 6 months is a serious benchmark. I understand that this newsletter is by no means big or unbelievably successful, but it is definitely larger than I ever thought it was going to be when I started it 6 months ago. And even though this milestone means almost nothing to anyone else, I am still very proud of myself - I think it is very important to take pride in the things you do.
It is very easy to play the comparison game with those around you. I totally understand that there are tons of other newsletters that would totally blow mine out of the water, but that doesn’t stop me from taking pride in what I’ve created. I’ve seen a lot of people, including myself, not take pride in something they are doing unless they are the best at it. It is hard to be the best at anything, so living this way can be tough. This is why it is important to take pride in your work on day 1 of any new project. If you wait a long period of time before deciding if you want to take pride in something or not, you will probably end up comparing your work to the work of others and that rarely ends well. But, if you are able to take pride in your work on day 1, then you’ll be able to take pride in it on day 2, day 3, day 4, and so on and so forth in a much easier manner. In simplest terms, it is easier to take pride in something on day 1, and keep that pride alive until day 100, than it is to try to start taking pride in something for the first time on day 100.
If you are able to start with pride, and have pride in every step you take, no matter where you end up, you will be proud of what you accomplished, even if you are way short of your goal. It is important to take pride in the process just as much as the result. This is why I think a lot of people lose pride in their work - they only look at the result and not the process they went through to get there. Don’t get me wrong, sometimes results are very important, but don’t forget about what you went through to get to where you are.
I also think intentionally having pride in everything you do results in better work. Since I’ve started thinking with this mentality, I have found that I am much more intentional with everything I do, and often end up with better results, because I want to take pride in every part of the process.
So that is my challenge to you this week: take pride in the process of things you do, not just the results. It is really easy in today’s age to only focus on results, and forget about all the hard work you put into something if it doesn’t pan out in the way you intended. So take pride in every step, knowing that you did good work, and will be proud no matter the outcome.
Stay Motivated,
-Dan
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