This is part one of a piece I have been thinking about for quite a while.
Some of the following you probably already know, but I am convinced you will find in this two-part series - maybe more - some ideas you've never heard before.
So without further ado, let's dive into it.
There are hundreds of ways around hard work.
I use them everyday, as I'm sure you do too.
As a matter of fact, I used one of them yesterday, when I decided to translate a story I wrote in French years ago instead of writing the piece you are reading right now.
But let's not get ahead of ourselves.
First, we need to talk about The Thing.
The Thing is always there, clinging to your bones like a good old ache.
It's the tape-loop you keep playing inside your head, like the earworm of a song you hate, and fear you'll never get rid of.
It's this thing you know you should be doing, but which never gets done.
It's the first step toward a dream, a bold move away from a demon.
Maybe you want to start writing.
You want to be your own boss.
Maybe you swore you'd go to the gym so you’d finally see some weight-loss.
Yesterday, you stared yourself down hard and cold in your steamed-up bathroom mirror.
You had enough.
"Tomorrow, everything will change,” you said, “The dawn of a second life".
Yet today is but a spark of tomorrow stained by the broken promises of yesterday.
What the hell is going on ?
Whether you know it or not, you keep looking for ways around hard work.
Time, or the lack thereof
Before all, you don't have time.
At least, that's the excuse you keep throwing around.
Life feels like a race you wake up to every morning, and you're on the wrong track. The ideal version of yourself already runs so far ahead you doubt you'll ever bridge the gap.
This illusion that time escapes your control creates a feeling of constant anxiety and rush running through your veins.
Why do you feel like this ?
I see three ways to look at it.
The first two will probably feel familiar.
The third one I have never seen anywhere yet.
1. Short-term arithmetic
What if I gave you two extra hours a day?
Can you in good faith assure me you would use them to do The Thing?
How much time are you really missing, by the way?
You see, twenty-four hours is all you'll ever get.
I know… You’ve heard it a thousand times, like a broken record, a washed-out platitude.
But do you really think about your attitude?
In 2024, the average time people spend online per day is 6.3 hours.
Six and a half hours!
Where do you think this time comes from?
Life is a zero sum game: for every moment spent, something else is left undone.
Considering you sleep six to eight hours per night and work around eight hours a day, I’ll let you figure out the rest of the math.
How do we fix this ?
Here is one method I have been using since more than 10 years.
It is very simple yet completely changed my life.
Are you ready ?
Make it a religion to replace "Sorry, I didn't have time" by "Sorry, I didn't take the time".
People around me probably never noticed that nuance in my speech, but I never use "not having time" as an excuse except when it’s the absolute truth.
I could sell you the power of that simple trick for a few more lines, but you get the point: be more mindful of the way you spend your time, take real responsibility for it. If you have to, take a journal and write for a few days - down to the minute - what you do with it. I am not joking. You would be surprised at how much of it is wasted on menial things.
You would be surprised how much “I don’t have time” means you have other priorities.
This is by far the main and first way we use around hard work, without realizing it.
2. Mid-term lingering
You're busy. I'm busy. We're all busy. Today busy-ness/business rules everything.
Our brains are still not wired for the constant noise of modern society.
Life keeps getting more convoluted as the world we're living in and the systems, rules, morals and technologies that govern it become ever more complex to navigate and apprehend.
The number of things any western human has to keep up with is astounding.
No wonder things get forgotten or left undone.
As our monkey mind races through our skulls all day, new things keep popping up from three different dimensions:
the past left unresolved
the present we can’t keep up with
the imaginary future we constantly live in
If this wasn't enough, we are being sold by modern marketing that the body of our dreams is only "three days of juice-detox away", that we can "start a billion dollars company over the course of two-days", ad vomitum.
It is no secret that the prime lever of money-making is our innate laziness as naked apes. That dynamic fatally brought a level of comfort never experienced in the history of the human race.
No wonder, then, that we now expect everything we are doing to be effortless and immediately successful, without any risk or cost in case we fail -something video games also etched into our brains, but that’s a topic for another day.
So we spread ourselves thin, we think we can do it all, we start a gazillion things.
We lose sight of the core principles that underpin real achievements.
True success requires hard work, discipline, and commitment, contrary to the easy life we're constantly advertised.
We seldom complete any of our newfound lunacies.
We might not think about them all the time, but these abundant open-loops in our lives create a sense of urgency weighing on our subconscious mind.
We feel we’re always behind, as if waking up with a "productivity debt which we must struggle to pay off throughout the day, in hopes of reaching a zero balance by the time evening comes." - Oliver Burkman
Things just keep adding up to the list, while the ones already there never get done.
Here, it is not that time is concretely lacking, but the constant sense of rushing that makes us feel even more pressed.
3. Long-term potential
If you have been reading my past newsletters and made it this far, I can safely assume you are more self-aware than the average person.
So I am also sure at some point in your life you have caught a glimpse of your deepest potential.
Those moments where you lost track of space and time, doing something you loved purely for the joy of it.
Not for money, not to impress anyone.
You might have thought about doing this for a living.
But then, your ego and your fear created all the wrong reasons why you couldn't take it seriously.
What will my father think? What if I fail? What if it makes no money? What about the kids then? What if people laugh at me? What if my friends don’t want to see me anymore? What if my wife leaves me? What if it does not work and I wasted years?
So you idle through life, never allowing the flames burning inside to transform you into the phoenix you could become.
No matter how fast or how much you get done, you feel this invisible force pushing you to grind on.
Do you know this feeling of needing something but not knowing what it really is?
Do you feel this tightness in your guts you're confusing with stress all the time?
Buried deep inside, hurt by your profound betrayal, your dormant potential is just roaring to come out.
The more you repress it, the harder it reminds you that you’re running out of time.
End of part 1 - Read Part Two Here
“I didn’t take the time”. Beautiful and simple. One holds ownership and accountability for what is undeniably in their control. There’s a line in the TV show Severance that comes to mind here… something like “your employer may own the clock on the wall, but the hour is yours.”
I have had some moments of intense bliss as I have pursued my better self. I think a very good question to ask oneself as we pursue different tasks through the day is “how is *this* making me happy?”. And that is being accountable to yourself.