Sometimes We Shouldn't Work Harder
Most people romanticize work ethic, but let’s face it, sometimes we are just outmatched.
There’s a cool Alexander the Great story about this.
Alexander broke in his famous warhorse, Bucephalus, when he was a small boy. A merchant brought in the stallion from a distant land and all the Macedonian leaders, including Alexander’s father Phillip, tried to tame the horse but were thrown from his back.
While observing from the sidelines, Alexander discovered the problem. He mounted the horse and cradled his neck until a cloud passed over the sun. The horse relaxed and Alexander effortlessly rode Bucephalus through the cheering crowd.
It turned out Bucephalus was afraid of his own shadow.
Two things happen when we face a difficult task. We work ourselves to exhaustion, or we sit around praying for inspiration. It’s in those moments you should look for an alternative strategy, a shadow if you will.
Take me, for example. I found writing frustrating at first because I thought I had a talent problem. I quit because I convinced myself I could never improve.
But I didn’t have a talent problem, I had a prioritization problem. My luck changed after I started waking up earlier and scheduling time for focused reading and writing.
It was Ryan Holiday who once wrote, “when your work gets hard, look for angles, not angels.”