I began this year with a single resolution: What could I do if I worked hard at it?
In my prior How to Succeed: A Simple Story, one commentor felt that the post led in well, set itself up and then failed to resolve with direct statements of action and that got me to thinking that I should write on that very specific topic.
What Does It Mean To Work Hard?
To work hard at something, it is important to identify the things to work hard at. To raise the hammer and hit the nail and not your thumb. That is, to define the courses of action which are necessary and those which are most effective, and then commit your time and effort to following through on those courses of action.
To work hard is to make things happen, and not just to get things done.
What will it mean for me to work hard?
In examination, my life has specific aspects or domains in which I work to succed.
They are as follows: dance, writing, and business.
These domains are deliberately narrow in one way, and exceptionally broad when I expand upon them, and they often tie in amongst themselves. For each I ask myself the queston.
What will it mean for me to work at dance?
Dance has many aspects in my life. Performance, practice, teaching, business, training. Each segment expands farther upon examination.
To work hard at dance I need commitment to the art above all else. That means placing priority of time and work to each aspect of the art.
Training is a meta-aspect, it is not dance yet it integral to being a successful dancer. Training involves physical training – yoga, pilates, strength training; mental training - dance journaling, music listening, video review; and health – nutrition, rest, moderation. To work hard at training I prioritize at least one of these aspects from each category daily.
Business is also a meta-aspect, it is not dance yet to succeed as a professional dancer I have to run an effective business. This means developing marketing strategies, following through on tactical actions, promotion, networking, finances, setting up gigs and contacting event organizers. To work hard at business I spend at least 1 to 2 hours every weekday on running, creating or fine tuning my business.
Teaching is both dancing and not. It is perhaps one of my favorite activities as I improve upon my own teaching methods, explain the history of the dance, connect and organize my classes and students, and most importantly teach in a classroom. To work hard at teaching I have started regular classes in New Orleans, am reaching out to organizers and continuing to educate myself on learning methods and teacher resources.
Practice is dancing. It is putting in the hours with music, with refinement of movement, with analysis and feedback, creating rhythms, patterns and choreography. It means not skipping it when I’m not in the mood and scheduling time to work with my peers. To work hard at practice I have started a new choreography, dedicate time to practice technique and get feedback 3-4 times a week.
Performance is dancing. Performance is competition, social dancing, public performances. It is the act of dancing where the principle aim is to let the practice and training take over and allow the movement to flow from a place of kinesthetic knowledge. To work hard at performance I social dance at least twice a week and am working on a choreography for competition and public performance.
Committing myself to these activities on a regular basis, scheduling them into my life, and giving them priority is what it means to work hard at dance.
What does it mean to work hard at writing?
What falls under writing for me is blogging, reading, journaling, writing, and dedicating time for expression and exploration.
Again, each aspect is different yet interconnected and often encompasses more than the mere act of writing.
Reading. One cannot write without reading. The most prolific and skilled writers are voracious readers, consuming literature, nonfiction, news and poetry at all times. It is the act of reading which stretches ones capacity to write in new ways. To work hard at reading, I am committed to reading a book a week – like Julien Smith.
Journaling. Talk to many writers and they often have a habit of journaling, morning pages, or whatever else they may call it. It is a place to let go of the control of writing for something and instead writing to let the words and thoughts fall out. To work hard at journaling, I commit myself to journal at least three times a week, if not once a day.
Blogging. Blogging is here and there. It is an all encompassing sphere of writing, editing, revision, connecting and researching. At it’s heart is writing post after post and developing a schedule or at least consistency. On top of that is social networking, guest posting, and research of topics. To work hard at blogging, I have put an end to posting regularly and have started writing for excellence, setting time to network and promote and comment, and to begin guest posting.
Writing. This last one is one I have yet to seriously undertake yet is a personal goal. To write for publication, online or off, and get paid for my work directly. Whether this is becoming a contributor to a larger blog or submitting articles for journals or magazines, it is to write professionally. To work hard at writing, I have started the process of writing a killer post for Untemplater in the hopes of becoming a staff (read: paid) contributor.
Committing myself to these activities and to clearly defining actions which lead to success in these areas is part of working hard at writing.
What will it mean for me to work hard at business?
If you had asked me two years ago if I would be a business person, or an entrepreneur, or anything of that sort I would have laughed at you. Business to me was something reserved for the corporate office that I didn’t want to be a part of. How very wrong I was. Doing business by creating value for others and providing a means for them to access that value is now an everyday part of my life.
The aspects of business that could be detailed are many, but I’ll narrow them for my own sake. Business aspects for me are finances, marketing, creation, and systems.
Finances have always been a struggle for me. From personal spending and budgets, to income generation, and a difficult relationship to money, it is something that I need to invest serious time and effort in. To work hard on my finances, I have to generate more income principally before everything else by identifying and maximizing opportunities.
Creation is my act of developing a valuable service or product. Whether it is in the form of coaching, consulting, dance lessons or an online business, it involves brainstorming, research, development, testing and often collaboration. To work hard at creation I sit down, here at my favorite café, five days a week or so, and identify and followthrough on actions which create value that other people will pay for.
Marketing stems from having a valuable product or service to deliver. It may take the form of delivering free content, blog posts for example, that have value to interest a lead into a paid exchange, to more specific marketing actions like list building, guest posting, sales process, and so on. To work hard at marketing, similar to creation, I sit in my office (read: café) and identify and followthrough on actions which get the word for my products and services out there.
Systems are the heart of a successful business. Creating systems, whether habits of creation, an actionable list of marketing actions, or financial systems to make sure people get paid when they are supposed to, are integral to a functioning business. The creation of systems takes the weight off of me, the individual, and places it into a structured process. To work hard at systems, I will create processes that remove my necessary involvement.
In each of these areas I have much to learn, and much to do. Perhaps more so than either dancing or writing, business is the newest of domains in which I am committed to working hard and thus I have the most work to be done here.
What do you want to be working hard at?
What will you do to work hard at those things?
Photo by David Holmes Photography of me at the recent Lone Star Championship.
