Are You Really On the Grind? Use This Formula To Define Your Grind
I think it’s time to define your grind. Why? Because these days it seems like everybody is using the word grind. I have conversations like this all the time…
Example 1:
Me: “How are you my friend?”
Friend: “You know I’m just getting my grind on.”
Example 2:
Friend: “I see you blogging a lot bro.”
Me: “For sure friend. I’ve been blogging everyday, 119 post in a row…”
Friend: “Why you grinding so hard?”
Example 3:
Me: “How’s work friend?”
Friend: “My boss is crazy. I’m about to get back on my grind and find a new job”
I’ve literally had variations of these 3 conversations over the last few months multiple times with multiple people. But what are we really talking about when we use the word grind.
How to Define Your Grind
The term grind is used so casually that I think the meaning is getting lost. 9 times out of 10 people say they are grinding but deep down have feelings that they aren’t grinding hard enough. What’s even worse, they don’t really know what it means to grind.
So let’s start there. How do you define your grind? I believe you define your grind based on three specific metrics.
- On task hours working with focus toward your goal each day
- The number of minutes early you wake up before the day officially starts to work on your mind and body to optimize your ability to work
- The number of sacrifices you make to delay immediate gratification for the benefit of achieving your goal
I believe your grind is a product of these 3 things. Do you work 1 hour towards your goal or 8? Are you waking up 30 minutes early or 2 hours early to read, meditate, and exercise? Are you sacrificing eating out, shopping, fun, TV or something else?
If you choose 1 hour of work, waking up 30 minutes early, and 1 sacrifice does that mean you’re not really grinding? Not necessarily. You must define your grind for yourself. To that end, however, not all grinds are created equal. This formula below can tell you the amount of grind you need.
Difficulty x Desire x How Fast = Amount of Grind Needed
The unwavering desire to achieve a difficult goal drives the will to grind. To put it another way, your required grind is a byproduct of not only how difficult your goal is, but also how bad and how fast you want that goal.
If you want a new job but you are complacent in your current job you can define your grind small. You can get away with 1 hour of work, waking up 30 minutes early, and 1 sacrifice and reach your goal in a year or two.
On the other hand, if you get fired and your family depends on your income for survival, you must define your grind big. You have to work 16 hours towards finding a new job, wake up 3 hours early, and sacrifice everything that’s not a necessity.
I believe you can use this formula in any situation to define your grind.
Here are two common examples on how to use this formula to define your grind.
1) You use the formula as a reality check. For example, say you already have a goal to start a business within the next 12 months. You know that you’re only putting in a few hours a week working towards this goal and starting your own business is a difficult goal.
Under those circumstances this formula provides a clear reality check. You either have to accept the fact that it’s going to take a longer than a year or you are going to have to increase your grind.
2) In similar fashion you can use this formula to plan for a grind. For example, if your goal is to win a state title in a sport. You already know the minimum effort is to go to practice 5 days a week for 2 hours like the rest of your team. You also know that those doing the minimum don’t win state titles.
So you plan to put in an extra hour before practice and after. Now you have 4 hours of work. What’s more, you wake up 1 hour early each day to visualize your techniques, stretch, and study video. You also make plans to sacrifice video games, TV, social media and texting with your friends until after states. As the season progresses, you tweak your grind based on your results and how close you feel those results are getting you to your goal of winning a state title.
There are limitless ways to define your grind using this formula. There is no reason to kid yourself. You are either on your grind or you’re not.
If you have time, I recommend you try my goal grind calculator here to simulate a few scenarios of how hard you need to grind.