Learn to Love the Grind
By Brooke
Flowers bloom, flowers die. As with the ups and downs of life, each season in its tumultuous life cycle is beautiful. Sometimes life is just a constant cycle of letting things cycle themselves out, and letting yourself figure out your purpose. I’m the second child of four (our ages are very spread out-- 26, 20, 12, and 10), with a nephew on the way, and an Aussie puppy. Our house has always been full of things going on. I grew up in the organized chaos of my large family, so now as I’m older I’ve learned I like to stay busy. I’m a full-time college student majoring in Marketing, working two part time jobs, while being on the executive council for my sorority as VP of New Member Experience.
Staying busy makes me feel more empowered and in control of my life, and having moving parts keeps things as exciting as growing up in my big household was. Yet, some weeks can seem like a never ending agenda of tasks on my to-do list. I know that life gets busy sometimes for everyone, and the hustle is just something you deal with. But it’s so easy to let yourself stress over overwhelming projects and situations, and it really takes a toll on your mental energy.
Over the past year I’ve tried my hardest to enjoy the busy, stressful days instead of dreading them. If you learn to love the grind, you’ll never work a day in your life. Navigating life as a young adult woman beginning a business career is full of unexpected surprises. In the past year, I’ve learned so much about myself and what I want to do, just by getting out of my comfort zone and getting my hands dirty. The uncertainty can be scary sometimes because like most people, I like to have control, and I’m a perfectionist so I don’t like making mistakes. But so far what I’ve found is that trial and error can be the best thing that you can do for yourself. Even when you fail, you can learn a lot from your mistakes. I’ve even realized that a lot of the struggles I’ve gone through in the past year from plans falling through and unfortunate circumstances have actually had better outcomes than if everything went to plan. I’ve learned to trust that everything will work out the way it’s supposed to.
Every little insignificant moment of your life creates a puzzle piece that forms who you are, from the ground up. So when something happens and you have a bad day, don’t get yourself down. Although the roughness of the situation might make you lose your shine for a while, it also sharpens you. Trust in the struggle, learn to love the grind, and you’ll see blessings flying in from everywhere. It just takes time for things to work themselves out, in addition to your own exploration and hard work for what you want. Nobody can give you success-- it’s something you have to work for yourself.
Many women feel the need to work their hardest and grind until they get to where they want to be in their careers-- and lives, because it seems like the only choice. We feel a pressure to succeed and to prove ourselves in a world where it’s just simply hard to make it. The world has conditioned us to believe that if we aren’t conventionally successful, we aren’t enough. To be happier we need to focus more on what makes us happy. Because at the end of the day, as cheesy as it sounds, life isn’t about the destination. It’s about the journey. We can’t focus on how happy we’ll be once we get what we want, because nothing is ever guaranteed.
I’ve found the most fulfilling days of my life are not the most relaxing vacation-like days you would imagine. My favorite days are the days spent by just enjoying the moment and reveling in the process. I’m surely working hard towards my goals, but if something doesn’t go to plan, I try to remember it’s not the end of the world and things will work out in the end. Chase your dreams, but learn to love each day and the hard work that you do for what it is.
