Fall In Love With The Process Required To Sustain Your Business

In the Greek mythological story of Sisyphus, the king of Ephyra is punished by the gods for overly promoting himself as powerful and vital, and for his greedy and deceptive nature. For eternity, he's forced to roll an immense boulder up a hill only for it to roll back down when it nears the top. For all time, he's cursed to push and re-push the rock up the mountain.

And, I can relate. When owning and operating Noodlehead Marketing, I felt this burden, specifically when it came to our new project sales. To survive (make payroll, among other things) required a large amount of effort each month. But at the start of the next one, we had to start over from zero. It was brutal, and a process that consistently overwhelmed me.

Interesting enough, accepting the reality that this is how life works, is our stepping stone out of the curse. For visionaries who hate the mundane, this drudgery is the path out of the eternal cycle.

When I was young, my father would incentivize me to write book reports by giving me five dollars for each book read with an essay to compliment. I'd knock out these books and reports as quickly as I possibly could, and would never look back. He encouraged me to re-read my reports to correct all the errors and make the report better. But whether it was the report or any school work, this review was something I despised doing and resisted when he required it for my five dollars. I didn't care for the process. All I wanted was the result, and this was a means to my desired end.

Now, when it comes to writing, love the process of doing it. For me, this love of process includes writing, editing, publishing, and celebration. Whether it's an email, a blog post, or this book, I'm reading and re-rereading it over and over until it flows and moves how I want it. While I don't dwell on it being perfect, I want it to be excellent. And the process to get there may seem mundane, but because I value and enjoy the process (in addition to the result), I don't see it as a punishment. I've transformed my curse into a blessing.

So, what if you found love for the process of pushing the boulder up the hill? What if you came to appreciate the process and details that make your business work at a fundamental level?

You'd go from being cursed to push the rock up the hill to loving the grind of doing it. But, it'd require you run the type of business where you got excited about the process of creating, doing, and maintaining.

Find long-term sustained success on the other side of mastering maintenance. To live and work in a cycle of sustainability, and to love (or at least value) each step of the process is critical. When you learn to enjoy turning the flywheel each day, not only will it reveal and develop your character, it'll move you towards the destination you've strived for all these years.

And if you can't get there mentally with your company, maybe it's time to explore its fate.

Hero Photo by Aziz Acharki on Unsplash