As fun as it is to write about awesome opportunities and all the cool stuff you get to do at university & beyond, there is a slightly more realistic side to all this. Unfortunately, this hardly ever gets mentioned (maybe it’s because we are always trying to look like we’re having a good time?).
If you’ve heard the phrase “The Grind” before, then you know what I am talking about. The (daily) grind is the boring, tired routine you fall into after the excitement and motivation you had at the beginning of something fades away. It’s normal and inevitable. In my case this has started to set in now that I am 5 months into my internship. I feel as though I have reached a point where nothing is that new anymore, I know what to expect from the day ahead and how to go about tackling the challenges I face. Although things do come out of nowhere and break the routine, they’re not as frequent as they were.
During the first two months of my internship, I would come home after a day of work and have this ton of energy left over. I would go to gym or for a run, cook a healthy meal, read or work on a side project (I used to take online German language courses) before finally getting a full night’s sleep and doing it all over again the next day. Now? On my worst days I would come home, pop a frozen meal in the oven, log onto facebook and skype and doddle about while watching a series on the television before crawling into bed and passing out.
Wake up, work, facebook+TV and greasy food and then bed. It’s madness but that is my grind, it happens every year for a few weeks. If this or something similar happens to you, then worry not, it’s normal and if you want it to pass then you will find your way out.
So in essence, you reach the grind when you get deeply stuck into the routine of doing the things you set out to do at the start. You get to the point where you forget why you wanted to do it in the first place. It’s a place everyone must pass through if they want to achieve something significant, the winners are those who can ride it out, the ones who never quit. Do you think top athletes enjoy every training session at 5am? Do you think scientists enjoy every single experiment/project they’ve worked on? Of course not! Nothing worth achieving ever comes easily, sacrifices must be made and patience is a must.
What I am saying here is that the grind is not a bad thing, actually it is the most important part of the journey to your objective/goal.
I recently attended several startup events and whilst working with so many young entrepreneurs, something dawned on me. Anyone can get excited about starting a company and everybody will start pitching in ideas and scheming and coming up with plans. However, only those who are serious about their goals will make it through the grind. It is meant to weed out the weak and will make you stronger by teaching you patience, perseverance and resilience. This is especially true of a university course and later on, employment.
The golden question is how to get out…
I don’t yet know how I’ll get myself out but for now, I’ll start with an extremely cold shower and take it from there. I used to beat myself up about not being efficient everyday and when I used to see that I was loosing motivation but now I understand that it’s inevitable. If you ever find yourself in a grind (whether it’s during a university course or at work), remember that it’s fine and normal. Remind yourself why you are where you are, keep at it, keep pushing and remember quitting was never an option.
At the end of the day, however bad a situation you find yourself in, it’s unlikely it would be as bad as this:
