0% of Greats “Sort of Like” Their Jobs

Have you ever stopped to notice that anyone who’s doing anything worth writing home about is doing something that they’d practically die for? Think about Kobe Bryant and basketball, a mother and her child, a Navy SEAL and his duty, and Jay Z and his music. It seems obvious, but you’ll notice that none of these greats just “kind of” likes what they do. There is no such thing as a job that will “suffice” in any legendary effort. It’s what they’d die for.

Why is that? Well, it takes too damn much work and too much passion to be exceptional to even have a chance if one isn’t head-over-heels committed. You’ll surely quit something you wouldn’t die for well before you’d log the time and effort it’d take to become remarkable at it.

Let’s reverse the logic. Choosing a duty, career, or endeavor that lacks a passion worth spending every waking minute thinking about, loss of sleep, struggle, and sacrifice guarantees that you can not be great at it. You have no shot from the get go.

So, let’s say you’re job pays a cool $90k per year plus benefits. If you can’t talk about it for hours on end, it doesn’t give you butterflies, or if you don’t wake up with it as the first thing on your mind, the best you can do is be just OK at it. And, trust me, there’s plenty of mediocrity to go around. I much rather you just quit and do something excellent.

Still obvious? Then, why aren’t you doing it? Cut out the complacency game and get on to something that makes your stomach turn.

 

Logan Gelbrich

@functionalcoach