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EP 44 - Principle #12 - Success is found in the effort
8 Plays1 year ago
This is part 12 of our summer PRINCIPLES series. It can be listened to by itself, but for greater context refer back to the intro Episode #32.
Principle #12 - Success is found in the effort
Note that the principles in this series are what work for me. They allow me to thrive and live my values as best as I can. I’m not advocating the adoption of my specific set of principles. Rather I’m attempting to showcase the power of principles by providing more context on how they can be defined, codified, and embedded into the thoughts and actions of our lives.
For more info and to download a free PDF of today's episode notes, visit: www.chriskreuter.com/CDWI
Join the Kreuter Studios mailing list: https://mailchi.mp/810367311f3d/ksbulletin
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Transcript
Bridging the Gap with Crystal Deal With It
00:00:15
Speaker
Crystal Deal With It focuses on bridging the gap between where you're at now and where you'd like to be. We'll explore wisdom and techniques from a wide variety of domains and industries and apply them to your unique challenges. I love developing frameworks, processes, and storytelling metaphors that enable personal and business growth. Through actionable next steps, we'll build momentum and confidence. My goal is to help you clear roadblocks, do more with what you have, and realize the potential of yourself and your team. So throw your challenges my way and Crystal Deal With It.
AI-Free Content Creation in the Summer Principal Series
00:00:50
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First, an AI statement that all elements of this episode are products of the author, Chris Croyder, and made without the use of any AI tool. This is part 12 of our summer principal series. This episode can be listened to by itself, but for greater context, refer back to intro episode number 32.
00:01:07
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Note that the principles in this series are what work for me. They allow me to thrive and live my values as best as I can. I'm not advocating the adoption of my specific set of principles. Rather, I'm attempting to showcase the power of principles by providing more context on how they can be defined, codified, and embedded into the thoughts and actions of our lives.
Redefining Success Beyond Metrics
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Principle number 12, success is found in the effort. Where does this principle come from?
00:01:33
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If success is judged through external metrics, such as the amount of sales, critical praise, more opportunities stemming from your brilliant work, then you're letting externalities drive your relationship to your own work. No doubt, we all love praise and we love the world of fawn over our work. I'm no different. But if that's your sole definition of success, you're taking a massive risk of ending up disappointed.
00:01:58
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which is why I put this principle right after the previous one, number 11, make beneficial things with passion. It just keeps my expectations in check.
00:02:08
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And this principle doesn't just apply to creative pursuits, it also reflects the need for consistent, constant effort. I'll only be successful if I put in the work. Pursuing a goal with inconsistency, half measures, or giving 50% isn't going to cut it. I'm unlikely to ever be the best writer in the world, or produce incredible results with every project, but I can strive to write as the best writer I can be.
00:02:32
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It's far better to pour your soul into each work, having a continuous improvement mindset, and refusing to get outworked. The harder you work, over a long enough time scale, is going to create better odds of long term, reliable success, or luck, and or luck, than trying to capture lightning in a bottle or going viral.
The Value of Effort in Creative Pursuits
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Why is this principle important? So whenever I browse a used bookstore, I'll have a moment where I pause and take in all the shelves. Bookstores, especially used ones, really are magical places. Shelf after shelf is filled with a massive variety of human effort. Many have only been read once, some never at all. And among those with pristine spines may be some beloved works that have passed through many hands over time. Regardless, consider all those different books.
00:03:22
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Each one represents years of effort, the writing, the effort to get it through publication, printing, and the unknown journey to that used shelf. On that shelf, it may lay dormant for years, even decades. So now let's go with a super low-end estimate here and say that each book represents one full year of human effort. For reference, each of my books took around two full years to write, edit, and produce. And if you are curious about my process in more detail, go check out episode number 15.
00:03:53
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But let's go back to our used bookstore. Let's say your local used bookstore is small. Only 20,000 books. Some have as many as a million. But if we stick with 20,000, that equates to a total human effort that exceeds the length of our recorded history. Now do you look upon all those books, all that effort, and feel the magnitude of it?
00:04:13
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And with all that work sitting dormant on shelves in front of you, some of them gathering dust for long periods of time, would you define all that striving as wasted effort?
Joy in Creation and Effort's Importance
00:04:24
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Writing our books, playing our music, programming those spreadsheets, building our birdhouses, however amateur or ephemeral the resulting work, the act of creation always offers us the choice to take pleasure from the creative effort itself before any potential result or impact is realized.
00:04:42
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And that's the importance of this principle. It's a reminder to pursue our projects honestly, passionately and consistently, to regularly choose to find success in the effort, which is why in this episode, I'm going to follow a simpler format than the previous ones and skip the sections devoted to impacts and actions. So we're going to close out today's episode with a quote that I just love, which I picked up from one of Shane Parrish's Farnham Street email newsletters.
The Hidden Work Behind Remarkable Results
00:05:08
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And you can find a link to that newsletter in the show notes. I definitely recommend it.
00:05:12
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What looks like skill is often just a lot of work that no one sees. Long nights, early mornings, sweat, tears. If you want remarkable results, you need to work remarkably hard. Professionals go all in. They don't leave at five every day because that's eight hours from when they show up. They grind for small insights. Knowledge accumulates and drips and gets leveraged in buckets. And with that, have a great day.
How to Support the Show
00:05:37
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If you feel that Chris dealt with it, I'd appreciate your support of the show by sharing it with someone who might benefit. Ratings on your favorite podcast player are also helpful in growing the audience. Visit chriscroiter.com for free downloadable PDFs with notes and resources for today's episode. Sign up for the CDWY mailing list, or to send in your problems or requests for future shows. That's C-H-R-I-S-K-R-E-U-T-E-R.com, or use the link in the show notes. Thanks for listening to what Chris will deal with.
00:06:12
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