I recently discovered a new quote that has quickly become one of my favorites.
"The blessing in life is finding the torture you're comfortable with." - Jerry Seinfeld
Coming from one of the most successful comedians of all time, that says a lot.
Jerry Seinfeld is famous for his "don't break the chain" experiment, where he would mark an X on his calendar for every day he practiced his routine. His goal was to have as long of an unbroken chain as humanly possible.
Was it fun? You bet it wasn't.
Did his passion, motivation, and drive stay strong throughout the entire process? Absolutely not.
Did it, in his own words, feel like torture? Yes.
There is a lie being sold to people nowadays saying that you need to find your passion. Once you find it, everything you do will just fall into place and nothing you'll do will ever feel like work again.
Unfortunately, that's total bullshit.
I see so many of my colleagues jumping from thing to thing, wondering why they're not getting results in their life.
"I'm going to start a Youtube series!"
"I'm going to make a Podcast!"
"I'm going to go to the gym and get ripped!"
They last maybe a few months before "life gets in the way." Or they try to look for something that's more exciting.
No matter what you choose to do with your life, there will be years where everything you do yields zero results, no one cares about you, and you won't feel like the work you're putting in is worth it.
And no matter what, there will be times where what you're doing will feel like its own special form of torture.
So what makes the difference between the people who succeed and those who don't?
Consistency.
Constantly working at your craft, putting yourself in horribly uncomfortable situations, and never backing down when you feel like you "must not be cut out for this."
Does this mean you'll never have fun doing what you do, or you should self-flagellate to get things done? Not at all.
But this does mean that no matter what your "passion" is, what you do will feel like work.
STOP DABBLING
What matters more than anything is how consistent you are in your work. Are you putting in 5 minutes a day without fail?
Good, you'll be way ahead of the dabblers who put in 6 hours a day and then quit after a month.
Don't be one of those dabblers.
Embrace the unsexiness of being consistent, and realize that very few people are willing to put in the boring hours to get the life they want.
After all, that time is going to pass by anyway. You might as well put it to good use.