The Grind is when you really don’t want to work, but you know you have to, because that’s how the dollars are made.

So you go to work.

The Grind is when you really don’t want to eat a healthy breakfast, but you know it’s a cornerstone to how you lose weight.

So you make a healthy breakfast.

The Grind is when you are at work, sitting staring at your computer, and you know you’ve got to do that thing that you really don’t want to do but you know you need to do, because it’s always there on the top of your list until you choose to do it.

So you complete the task and move on with your life.

The Grind is fighting through a mess of crippling depression to just show up at work today.

The Grind is when it never ends. When the shit keeps on coming, and you’ve got to stand under the waterfall with a paper cup. But you stand there, anyway, because it’s what you’ve got to do whether you like it or not.

The Grind is calling an angry customer you’ve accidentally-wronged and becoming their punching bag and taking the hit for all the stuff that is going wrong in their life right now.

The Grind is setting aside your carefully-planned day to do that urgent thing that came out of nowhere and is now threatening to suck your whole day up into a black hole of thankless, must-do muck.

The Grind is fixing broken stuff that nobody notices and that you actually don’t want to fix, but you know it’ll slow your business down if you don’t fix it.

So you fix it.

The Grind is the 360 days the Starship Enterprise was afloat last year without anything interesting happening.

The Grind is the one similarity successful people all share.*

I’m grinding it out today. You?

— Toby Cryns

p.s. Did you know that I offer monthly digital strategy sessions to help you focus on the important stuff in that pile of shit you call your to-do list? Call me at (612) 293–8629.

*Success = Fulfilling your intentions through dedication to your craft.