We all have things to do that we don’t really want to do. Sometimes we dread something so much that we postpone it for a day, a week, a month, or even longer. Perhaps we secretly hope that if we put it off long enough, it will magically disappear. Or maybe we tell ourselves that we’re just waiting for the right mood—that we need inspiration to strike before we get to work. And you can’t force inspiration, right?
But as an accomplished artist once said: “Inspiration is for amateurs. The rest of us just show up and get to work.”1 Commenting on that thought, an expert on motivation gave this advice: “If you are sitting there, putting something off because you don’t feel like it, remember that you don’t actually need to feel like it.”2
It’s true. Most of the world’s work gets done by people who may not feel like it at the time. They just do it. They get up and go to work, day after day, and don’t wait to feel like it. If they did, not much would ever get done. We’re all blessed by the dedication of such people.
Of course, we don’t feel like doing hard things—they’re hard! But deep inside, we know that some things simply need to be done. Not because we like it or because it’s pleasant or fun. Just because it’s right, it’s important, and it’s needed.
Someone close to a prominent leader was asked about the leader’s unusual ability to accomplish so much. Many thought he had a natural disposition to work hard, or maybe he was blessed with good genes or good fortune. But his close friend simply noted, “It wasn’t luck or blessings that kept him going; what kept him going was grit. He just kept working even when he didn’t feel like it. He had things to do, so he simply went to work.”
Grit is the determination, the willpower, to keep working even when you’d rather not. And often enough, grit, like inspiration, isn’t a requirement for hard work—it’s the result! Then, when it’s over, there’s nothing quite like looking back with satisfaction at a job well done, a task completed, and finding that you do feel inspired, after all, to do the next hard thing.
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October 31, 2021
Broadcast Number 4,807
The Tabernacle Choir
Orchestra at Temple Square
Conductors
Mack Wilberg
Ryan Murphy
Organist
Andrew Unsworth
Host
Lloyd Newell
Scatter Sunshine
Edwin O. Excell; arr. Ryan Murphy
Hear Him
Ryan Murphy
How Bright Is the Day
American folk hymn; arr. Mack Wilberg
Anyone Can Move a Mountain
Johnny Marks; arr. Mack Wilberg
Praise to the Lord, the Almighty
German hymn tune; arr. Mack Wilberg