Take The Long, Hard, Stupid Way | Work, Service & Worship

JR Tolkien is a very famous author and I was doing some research on him and obviously he wrote the books. The Hobbit, he wrote The Lord of the Rings. He actually, The Lord of the Rings became movies, as you guys know, it's one of the most successful trilogies ever. And The Lord of the Rings Return of the King has 11 Academy Awards. So not only did he write great novels, but these novels became something even greater. And where I get very excited is I dove deep into his process and what that actually entailed and what that looked like. And what's interesting about JR Tolkien is that his father got it four years old, his mother died at 12. He actually served during World War One. And there was a point in his life where he was simply just a professor. And so as we talk about these novels, he wrote, it wasn't that he just wrote a novel. What makes him so unique and so special is he spent decades here that again, he spent decades creating LVISH languages, the warven languages. I believe these are elves and dwarves. He created maps, mythology, family histories, calendars, songs, legends, all these things for these novels that he created. He spent all these time, all this time, decades creating all these little minute details of languages, maps, mythology, histories. To just make the storyline that much better because he cares so much about it. That's what I would call a vocation, a calling. So it's very interesting about all these things that he created from the languages to the maps to the mythology to the histories is that a lot of this was never even used. And this is one of those moments where we recognize that the workmanship means more than the material. I've said it before on this podcast, but the work works on you more than you work on the work. Here he is doing all this work and a lot of it never even appeared in the books. Now let's just kind of go through some of the success that he had. The Lord of the Rings had over 150 million copies sold worldwide. It was translated into dozens of languages. It's considered amongst the greatest novels ever written. People say that it is the blueprint for modern fantasy. Now the Hobbit has over 100 million copies sold. The influence can be seen all over the world. For example, a song of ice and fire, which I believe is the Game of Thrones. I love the Game of Thrones. The Wheel of Time and World of Warcraft. All of these are in a lot of ways descendants of J.R.R. Tolkien. In a lot of ways J.R.R. Tolkien is the sopranos of today's day and age with television. Without the sopranos, there would be none of these shows that we all love so much, such as the Peaky Blinders. So what I'm trying to communicate here is that J.R.R. Tolkien endured a lot and for decades invested so much into his craft. And that ultimately is what led to creating something so beautiful. This podcast episode is not about J.R.R. Tolkien. It's actually about taking the long, hard, stupid way, which was something that I first heard in the book Garden City by John Mark Comer. John Mark Comer is a pastor who I admire very much. I've read three of his books. God has a name, ruthless elimination of hurry. And then I just finished Garden City. And I think Garden City was actually my favorite book that I've read of his. And he has this quote in here. I just wrote it down and I actually took the long, hard, stupid way in prepping for this podcast. I wrote everything down in this journal because one, I think it helps me retain it. And two, I just think that, you know, it's what the work deserves. And so here's the quote from Garden City. It says, if we are going to get really good at something, then it's going to take time and effort and energy. Lots of it. The graphic designer Frank Shamero tells a story about the chef from a prestigious restaurant in New York. He's a city called Momofuku. One day he saw his sous chef cutting a corner and came down hard on him. We don't work like that here. We do things the long, hard, stupid way. He then goes on to say the long, hard, stupid way. So incredibly good. But working the long, hard, stupid way takes a lot of time and getting good at what you do takes even longer years. Now decades, a lifetime of learning and training and education and practice and self discipline and not giving up on the pursuit of excellence as an act of a bot. I want to come back to what a bot means in a minute, but I just want to set my intention for what this podcast is about. So you have clarity. Again, it's about the long, hard, stupid way. So much of what I've seen having worked with these athletes is that so few people are willing to take that long, hard, stupid way. A lot of the time when you are working really hard to get a result and you have such a clear image of who you want to be, you want it now. We understand that our ego is impatient. If you listen to any great mind out there, whether it's Charlie Munger or it's Warren Buffett, Jaco Willink talks about this a lot. So many of these great people out there, they talk about expanding your time horizons. So often our ego wants it right now and it's impatient and it's willing to take shortcuts. And I think in today's age with social media, it makes it really easy to want to take shortcuts and to care less about your work and focus so much on the outcome and the result that you don't even create something that you're proud of. And that's the saddest thing ever to take a shortcut for somebody else or for a result and to not create something that you love and admire so much. I think that's what art is. It's for you a lot of ways. I think about Quentin Tarantino. He says, yeah, I am creating these movies for the audience, but the audience is me. Right. And so I think in any creative act, it's important for us to create something beautiful that we love a lot of the time these podcasts and these videos that I'm making are just podcasts and videos for a younger me. And if I could be proud of this video, then that's a win for me. Right. And so as I'm talking to you about why we're getting into the long hard stupid way. Again, I think that high expectations as Jensen Huang says creates people, mold people builds people into being individuals with low resilience. I'll say that one more time when you have high expectations, you often have low resilience and a lot of the time those expectations come from outcomes and timelines that were never in your control to start with. And so I think it's always going to take longer than you think it will. And it will always be harder than you think it will. Whether that's your sport, whether that's your career, whether that's your creative endeavor, whatever it is, even creating content, for example, is always going to be harder than you think it will be. And it will always take longer than you think it will. And so therefore the people that can expand time horizons and truly be on fire for it and truly love it are the ones that will be able to endure and make it. But that will take them committing to the long hard stupid way at times. Now I think that people often in today's world want fixes and they want hacks. I wrote down the first example is content. So much content is just disgusting nowadays. It's these these overly optimized hooks to try to capture your attention. And everybody has just lost their sauce. They have lost their swagger, their creativity, and they're optimizing for attention. And I get that that's today's world. But I do think that that's a shortcut. My approach on content is, politely, I just don't really care if the hook isn't great. What I care about is creating something that's worth listening to. I care about creating something that is true to me and something that is authentic to me. And when I overly optimize for success, a lot of the time success, whatever that means, it's an authentic. And it's not a great representation of what I want my art to be. And so I think in social media, especially people are doing everything they can to take shortcuts to get it right now. I have posted three minute videos for the last year and a half, three minute videos. Nobody would tell you to do that on on on Tik Toker Instagram. And all I do is I use it as an opportunity to test my knowledge. I use it as an opportunity to just go deep on one topic over three minutes and try to add as much value as I can again for the younger me and also for you, right. But more importantly for the younger me. And nobody would say that. But over the past year and a half, I've created a full business and I've accumulated over 150,000 followers somewhere around that just from caring. And so I think within the content world, so many people take shortcuts. I think within the coaching world. There is. I mean, I'm in the coaching world. So I'm a little bit biased. But the amount of people that just want to create an Instagram and they think they're going to get clients right away. And they're just going to do everything. They're going to take these shortcuts to get clients. I know people that are spending $20,000 to pay for ads to get leads for clients for coaching. And I get that. That's business. No shade. But I also would say that social media is a beautiful thing because it's an opportunity for you to share what you love in a very authentic way. People celebrate nowadays that they celebrate when people are authentic. I've had so many people show me love and tell me that I'm so myself on this content piece on this content game that I'm playing. And I appreciate it. But isn't that the point of social media is to be authentic. Isn't it supposed to be to show the things you love and to show who you actually are not this image of who you want to be. But rather who you actually are. And and I think that with this coaching side of things that I'm talking about, people just want to pay for leads, sell the leads, get clients compared to earning people. trust. That's a long, stupid, hard way. But in the long term, it's so much better. I've never once paid a dollar for an ad. I've never once DMed an athlete to work with me. And any athlete that I've ever worked with has reached out to me. And I'm proud of that because every athlete that reaches out is bought in, right? They're bought in. They want to do it. Those are high quality individuals, column customers. I don't like to call them that, but people that I'm working with, they're bought in, right? And when you take a shortcut and you just pay for these leads, are these people actually believing in what you're saying? Are these people actually bought into how you go about things? So you can see I'm clearly passionate about it because I may coach myself, but I just think that people lose the love of the game. You know, I love this stuff. I create videos on this stuff because it's my passion. I go to bed at night thinking about it. I wake up in the morning. It's the first thing I think about. I create seven pages and notes for a podcast that I don't even know how many people will listen to. And that's okay because it's for me because it's meaningful to me. I was doing this back when I would get three listens on my podcasts. And so I just really struggle with these people that are so willing to take shortcuts and aren't willing to create something that actually is built to last. So I think it's applicable in sports. There's this people, there's these people that think about a very specific queue, a special queue that's going to solve everything, a coach that's going to fix all your problems. The book that will change who you are athletes rarely want to take the long hard stupid way. They want to quick fix outing the outing game to game. There's got to be a fix. And now I'm not saying that there isn't a pro iterative process where you're going to continue to get better as you collect information. That is the process. But I also think shout out to Intergame Martinez. There is a natural learning process. A process that occurs when you just delay judgment and you stay invested in this craft and you have a loyal and abiding commitment to being eager to take the smallest step forward to go out there and struggle and collect the information and approach it with love and interest, not with judgment, interest in the sense of how can I take this information and be eager to take the smallest step forward to make the best product I possibly can. And then love, how can I approach this with love? Can I love this craft? Can I just be curious, not judgmental and just be passionate about making the best product I possibly can on the field. And that's going to take you failing. The greatest teacher undefeated black and white is experience. You can read all the books you want. But if information was all that we needed, everybody would be a billionaire and everybody would have six pack abs. And so you have to take action. You have to experience. Then you have to take the information from the experience and just apply it to your process and continue to take steps forward. And the emotion piece is what clouds that which often stems from the ego. The ego wants it now. And so it's like what's the quick fix. I've athletes that I work with who are trying to change something every single outing. And that's just a recipe to not be a very consistent human being. And especially and directly, that directly translates to your performance. You're not going to be a very consistent performer. And so yeah, the long heart, stupid way is not the path that really anybody wants to take. I don't blame you. We all have an ego. But it is the path I believe that leads to mastery. It's the path that leads to greatness to creating something that's that's worth being proud of. My last example is just business. You can understand it's no different than anything I was just saying. But we're so quick to take a shortcut in your business, make a short term decision. Right? A short term decision that is not aligned with who you are. In that book, Garden City, he talks so much about saying no. Jesus at one point in the Bible is asked to go into a city where everybody is waiting for him to talk to him, to worship him. And he says, we're going to go to this other city, which is Jesus's way of saying no. And I think so often as you get better at what you do, as Alex Formosi says, the woman in the red dress gets a whole lot sexier. And the woman in the red dress represents distraction. These distractions get sexier. And when you when you are not willing to take the long hard, stupid way to create something that's beautiful, you get distracted by everything. And in a world where there is so much, there's an abundance of information and opportunity focuses the art of knowing what to ignore. You've heard that before. And so I just think making short term decisions for a quick buck is is a example of avoiding this long hard, stupid way. Now, I want to come back to this idea of a bod working the long hard, stupid way takes a lot of time and getting good at what you do takes even longer years, no, decades, a lifetime of learning and training and education and practice and self discipline and not giving up on the pursuit of excellence as an act of a bod. And so what does a bod mean? I think this is so cool. Again, shout out, garden city. This is where I learned this. A bod basically means work. A bod is Hebrew. And when you translate that to English, it means work. Now, sometimes it is translated to service. And so this is where this is really exciting. And I think beautiful in so many ways work is service. A bod is work and work is service. A bod is service. And in my career, coaching athletes, educating people, I do view my work as an act of service, which by the way, fuels me. It gives me passion and excitement and endurance and joy to go and create because I'm focused on service wholeheartedly. I think that when we are in a survival state, we need things, we're forcing things to happen. It's very selfish. And when we are in a creative state, it's very selfless. You are focused on service. And when you are focused on service, great things happen. You want to make more money in your life. Go serve more. You want to be, you want to be the best on your team. See how you can be a servant. The best leaders are the best servants. It says in the Bible, the highest people in the Bible are those who serve, who make themselves less. I just think is a beautiful thing. So again, work is service. But here's the most beautiful thing as well. I keep saying beautiful. It's all beautiful. But I would say here's another exciting thing. A bod is also the same work that is used all over the Hebrew Bible for worship. So once again, work equals worship. And this reminds me of the quotes one more time that the work works on you more than you work on the work. The work is the win. That's what this podcast is about in a world that is obsessed with optimization and speed and automation. I do believe that it pays to do it the long, hard, stupid way. So now that we understand what a bod means, work, service, and worship. I want you to understand that we're made in the image of God. I first heard about this in the ruthless elimination of hurry from John Mark Comer. And he talks about how we're made in the image of God. So we're made to create something so beautiful and something oddacious. But then we're also made in the dust, which means we do need to rest and which means we're going to be emotional and we are not God. We may be made in the fingerprints of God, but we're not God. And so we're made in the image and we're made in the dust. Right now, I'm going to be talking to you about being made in the image, which comes from Genesis 1, 26, 27. That's again, Genesis 1 versus 26 and 27. He tells us that we are made in the image. Now in Hebrew, the word image is Salem. Salem means idle or statue. This is exciting. Idol. What is an idol? An idol is a visible representation of an invisible being. Now remember, Salem means image. An image means idle or statue. So statues, and especially in the old days, were put up into temples of every single God in the ancient world so that the worshipper could see what God was like. So again, an idol is a visible representation of an invisible being and a statue was something that was put up in a temple for every God in the ancient world so that the worshipper of this God could see what God was like. Now what's really cool as John Mark Comer says in Garden City is that we are God's statues. I wrote down that our job is to be faithful and abiding stewards, stewards of these gifts that we've been given. And we are meant to make visible and invisible God. So we are both the idol and the statue of who God is. This compliments my take on how sports are a creative act. I think everything is a creative act. We God is a great creator. He's created everything in this world and the most beautiful things you've ever seen are creations from the creator. Creator, we are a creation creating. I've talked about it many times but I do believe that sports are a creative act. I think that everything is a creative act if you are willing to let it be. We are meant to create something that shows God's glory. That's my biggest takeaway from Garden City. Creativity, greatness, all these things we are trying to show God's glory, creativity, and greatness in our work, whatever that is, whether that's your sport, whether that's my content, whether that's my coaching, even if you are an author. I'm reading this book right now, Bird by Bird. I think that Ann Lamotte, if I'm saying that right, I think that I see God's glory in her writing. I think that she's so intentional when she takes the long-hard stupid way because I'm learning about it, but she's so intentional with her writing and she's such a great writer that it just is something where I can see greatness in her work. When I see that greatness, I see God's glory, I see God's creativity, I see God's greatness. And the Argus way it tells us that God's gift to us is creation, is life, and our gift back to God is creativity. And so I do believe that we've been giving gifts. If you just read the scripture, it tells us that we've been giving gifts. We've been giving gifts, and it is our job to be a good steward of those gifts, and to make something great, and to make something beautiful out of those gifts. Now Paul and the New Testament and Romans, Romans 12, verses 6 through 8, he talks about how we have different gifts according to the grace given to all of us. We receive gifts, and these gifts can be prophecy, serving, teaching, encouraging, giving, leading, showing mercy. I think that everything good that comes from the garden or anything that is good that comes from the field, as it says in scripture, is because of the sower. And the sower sows good seed, and so again it's because of the sower. The sower is God, and the field is the world. So anything that is good in this world is because of him, and it's all because of the gifts that he's given us. And so why am I talking about these gifts that we've been given? Because I do believe that it's our job to take these gifts, and to make the most of them. There's a term in Latin called "Ora at Labora." "Ora at Labora" means pray and work, so you pray for it, but you also do the work. You pray to catch the bus, and you run to catch the bus. Now I also think that it complements the idea of us taking care of the quantity, and he will take care of the quality. When we are all messed up with the process, so we're not willing to take the long, hard, stupid way. We again take shortcuts. We are unwilling to do the work that the work deserves. And I shout out my guy, Billy Oppenheimer, but I love the idea that we have the right to the work. We do not have the right to the fruit of the work. And when you understand again that this work actually develops who you are, it was never about the result. That's the whole idea of the work works on you more than you work on the work. This is a whole idea from Ryan Holiday, Ego is the enemy. The workmanship means more than the material. It was never supposed to be about the material. The material is a natural byproduct of doing great work, of a bod, of service, of worshiping God through your work. So again, I love that affirmation from the artist's way. God, I will take care of the quantity. You will take care of the quality. That's an affirmation that I had written on my whiteboard as I was creating SIP. It was written there far before SIP was ever even a thing. I'm just going to show up to the camera. I'm going to show up every single day to the book, to the pages, and be willing to learn, be willing to write, be willing to create. And God will take care of the rest. I don't have to understand how I just have to let it happen, which is a self-to idea. Self-one, once it now, self-one, once control, self-one is impatient. It's the ego mind. And when you are self-to, I do believe that self-to is just a Holy Spirit. And you are tapping into a source of creativity. And it's flowing through you and you are creating something beautiful. There's more where that came from. But I'm going to reference back to 1 Corinthians 3 verses 5 through 9. It says, "What after all is Apollo's and what is Paul? Only servants through whom you came to believe as the Lord has assigned to each his task. I planted a seed. Apollo's watered it, but God has been making it grow. So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything. But only God who makes things grow. The one who plants and the one who waters have one purpose. And they will each be rewarded according to their own labor. For we are co-workers in God's service. You are God's field, God's building. So now we move on to this idea of being co-workers and God's kingdom. There's a parable in the Bible of the tenants, I believe it is, or the vineyard. And there are tenants in the vineyard who are meant to work. And the master goes away, which was normal back in the day. They would have vineyards, huge vineyards, and the master would basically hire people to work within the vineyard. And he would have basically reps go back and collect the money and collect the fruit that the vineyard created. And these tenants in the vineyard were given everything they needed. They were given a fence, a watchtower, a press for the grapes. And really what this is symbolizing is that God has given us everything. God has given us everything to be a good steward within the vineyard. The vineyard is the world for you and I. But in the book, in the Bible, in the story, it talks about how these tenants become drunk not only on these grapes on the wine, but they become drunk on their own pride. And they forget that this is the master's vineyard and that it all belongs to him. And they start to think because they're prideful that this is their vineyard and they own it. And so when the master sends the reps, they beat the reps. They kill the reps. And it goes on and it goes on. And eventually the master sends his son, which Jesus is telling this story. And they take the son out of who is the greatest worker of them all, take the son out of the vineyard and they kill him just like they took Jesus out of Jerusalem and they killed him. Once again, Jesus is a master teacher. But when you think about us being co-workers in the kingdom, we are just tenants within the vineyard. We are meant to plant the seed and water the seed. And ultimately God is the one that grows the seed. But it's so easy for us to become prideful and think that it all belongs to us. Just as these individuals in the story become prideful and start killing the reps that come and visit and killing the son who comes and visits to collect what is owed to the father. Being a co-worker in God's kingdom to me means humbling yourself and understanding that you are not the owner of your talent. Shout out Madonna. Madonna says, I'm the manager of my talent. I'm not the owner of my talent. You are not the owner of these gifts. You were given these gifts and it's arming to take these gifts and be a co-worker and create something beautiful. And it takes what it takes. It takes the long, hard, stupid way if that's what it takes. And that's not for us to determine how long it takes or what it looks like. That's us clinging on to control. That's us leaning too far into the image. That's us being impatient. And so it's for us to not lean on our own understanding, but to lean on him and to just be a good steward and work every single day to create the best possible product. And back to the athletes piece because that's primarily the audience that listens to this. So often we believe that because we've done the work we deserve it right now. Well, I can tell you right now that I went five years of college baseball after getting drafted where I saw minimal results. And I just kept showing up and I was angry. I was sad. I didn't understand and I didn't make it in my sport. But now here I am and I have a complete understanding of why of why I went through this suffering of why I was I was learning these lessons. And it's for this. It's for everything I'm doing now. But if I lean on my own understanding, I would have never kept going. And so as a co worker, it's our job to keep our head down and do the work. It's our job to devote ourself to our work. A vocation is a calling for your life. And if this is if this is the calling for my life, I'm going to create a beautiful product. And being devoted to your life's work and giving everything you have to it in a loyal and abiding way reminds me of this quote that I came across. I actually put it on one of my sips on days. It's this individual that says at dinner, the surgeon asked me why I write with a pen rather than using a dick to phone or a word processor. Why would I? Because it's faster and it's more efficient. When it's my life's work, I'm not in a hurry is what he replied to this surgeon. So again, this surgeon is getting on him for not having a faster process to collect this information or to document this information. And he says, why would I go faster? And he says, because it's more efficient. And he says, but it's my life's work and I'm not in a hurry. And I think that that's how we should approach anything that we are truly in love with truly care about truly devoted to and and sip for me is my whole life. It's everything I do every single day. I am doing something for sip my my girlfriend of seven years works for sip. And so everything we are doing is to create the best possible product. And when my ego gets involved, I get really short term and I want to change things now. I wanted to happen now. But if I could just expand my time horizon, there it is again. I can understand that this is my life's work. And I am in this for the long haul. And I'm invested in creating the best possible product and educating myself in the greatest possible way to be able to serve to a bod to worship and the greatest possible way. And so back to this idea of co-workers and God's kingdom. I shared with you the Madonna example. I thought it was really cool. I'm the manager of my town. I'm not the owner. Johan Sebastian Bach, who is a classical musician who I actually really enjoy. He says, "Solidio Gloria." I actually included this in one of my Sipsundays. What does that mean? It means glory to God alone. He said, "The aim and final end of all music should be none other than the glory of God." How about that? His aim and his final end goal for all of his music is to display the glory of God. And that is worship. That is what it means to do great work. That is what it means to be made in the image, celeb, to be an idol or a statue, to be a visible representation of an invisible being. That's what it means to show the worshipper what God was like. I think it's beautiful. Rick Rubin, he says, "The best artists tend to be the ones who have learned to get out of the way." To get out of the way, it's self-ones job in the inner game of tennis is to be in the corner and to observe. That's it, to be still and to observe. And self-toves job is to let it happen. How incredible. Self-toves is allowing the Holy Spirit to create through them, to let God to create through you. Even if you are not a believer, I do think that you can look at God as good orally direction. I like to think that even if you don't believe in Jesus, which I'm hesitant to even talk about, I do think that you can believe that there's something greater than you. And when you believe that there's something greater than you, you start to recognize that you're probably not in complete control. So back to the example of Rick Rubin. The best artists tend to be the ones who have learned to get out of the way. And your sports performance, can you just learn to get out of the way and let your innate abilities work through you? That's the whole premise of the inner game of tennis. And then when you are a believer, again, you could just see how that is the Holy Spirit. Back to the Romans example, receiving these gifts. Mother Teresa, she said, "I'm a little pencil in the hand of a writing God." Michael Jackson said, "No one can quite say what the creative process is." Because I have nothing to do with it, of course. It's created in space. It's God's work, not mine. Nicola Tesla, he said, "My brain is only a receiver." This is a guy I'm not even sure that believed in God. But he believes in something greater than him. He says, "My brain is only a receiver. In the universe, there is a core from which we obtain knowledge, strength, and inspiration." And I think success leaves clues. And if you're willing to pay attention, you can take these clues of some of the greatest people ever at their respective crafts. And you can take those clues and apply it to your process. And what I would hope you take away from this is to recognize that it's not all up to you. You actually, when you receive the Holy Spirit, you receive these gifts, and you receive supernatural knowledge. You receive supernatural endurance and joy, and it's our job to call on that. It's our job to think high of God. The greatest form of idolatry is thinking, "Low of God." The Holy Spirit renews. But so often this is a tangent. But we lean on ourselves. We rely on ourselves. And when we are willing to lean on God, not on our own understanding, but on him, and to call on the Holy Spirit, he works through us. Firstly, receive the Word, and then the Word works through us. Incredible. But again, take the clues that it's not all up to you. Step aside and let the creativity flow through you. Let it happen. On this topic of letting it happen and being devoted to your work, I think about Raphael Nadal. I just watched his documentary on Netflix, the four-part documentary. But Raphael Nadal is overcoming all these injuries. He's a guy that has been devoted to one thing since he was four years old. And he literally has an injury within his foot that if he gets surgery, he'll never play tennis again. And the injury flares up when he's 18, and he's just busting onto the scene. And so this is a guy that's been devoted from the time he's four. He's finally making it when he's 18. And he beats some, I think it's like the third ranked player in the world. And he's the 50th ranked player in the world at 18 years old. And one of the biggest tournaments in the world. And then all of a sudden this injury pops up. And he goes to such great lengths to see how great he can actually be at this craft. He actually numbs the nerves that lead into his foot. So his foot's literally numb. This is a guy that is grossly devoted to this craft. It's what true excellence looks like. And honestly, as I see that, what I see is God's glory. I see somebody that has devoted themselves so much to one thing that all you can see is God and his performance. Now, I think the other thing you can take away is that nothing will satisfy you except for God. And I think idolatry is going to creation for something that is only available from creator. And so you would hope that Rafa's entire identity is not in tennis. And that he is a father and he's a child of God. I know he was, I think, raised Catholic. But, you know, I think it's interesting sometimes that when you give yourself so fully to something, it's easy to make it an idol. It's easy to get your validation and your worth from this work, which is a hard balance. In a lot of ways, you could say it's a paradox. You know, it contradicts itself in some ways. But can we give ourself fully to this work as an act of a bod service and worship. This is a gift back to God. When that is your intention that is the inside of your cup, I do believe you create something more beautiful. It's literally what I wrote in my notes. Give yourself fully to the work just as Rafa did, just as these other greats did, just as Bok did, just as Michael Jackson did. And if you give yourself fully to the work for the sake of the work, for worship and for service because you love this, because your intention is so pure and you don't have a need for the fruit of the work, it actually makes the work better. I hope you hear that. Your work is actually better when you are willing to delay judgment and just create something because you love it. I want to share a couple Tim Keller quotes with you. Tim Keller says, "A job is a vocation only if someone calls you to do it for them rather than for yourself." And so our work can be a calling only if it is reimagined as a mission of service, a bod, to something beyond merely our own interests. Thinking of our work mainly as a means of self-fulfillment and self-realization slowly crushes a person. When your intention is not pure and your intention is for prideful reasons, for your own recognition, or for just for you to win and make money, it crushes a person, but when you make it an act of service and you reimagine it as a mission of service to something beyond merely our own interests is when you create something truly special. He says, "Our daily work can be a calling only if it is reconciled as God's assignment to serve others. If our identity is in our work rather than Christ, successful go to our heads and failure will go to our hearts." Similar to what I just shared about Rafa. I'm not speaking for Rafa or what his experience was, but I can see how easy it is for somebody who devotes himself like that to make it an idol. I've experienced it myself with baseball. Work is as much a basic human need as food, beauty, rest, friendship, prayer, and sexuality. It is not simply medicine, but food for our soul. Work is our design and our dignity. It is also a way to serve God through creativity. There it is. Particularly in the creation of culture. The question regarding our choice of work is no longer what will make me the most money and give me the most status. The question must now be how, with my existing abilities or calling gifts and opportunities, can I be of the greatest service to other people? I just think that these quotes from Timothy Keller are just such a beautiful representation of everything I'm trying to communicate. The long-hard stupid way is often what it looks like to create something that truly serves other people in a meaningful way. I do believe that things that are built fast are not built to last. Intention has a smell. You can sniff that out with people. When they're wanting to take shortcuts and they're trying to build it fast, you can see that. But in the long-hard stupid way, the process, you are going to experience the ugly duckling phase. I dedicate an entire podcast to this idea of incubation in the ugly duckling phase. Shout out Julia Cameron in the artist's way. But so often within your craft early on, I mean, honestly, throughout your entire journey, you continue to gain more responsibility. And it just continues to get harder. So you continue to go through ugly duckling phases. The process is a spiral path. And so, yeah, you level up. But as you level up and you step into a new endeavor, you step into a greater version of yourself. There is a ugly duckling phase because you're putting yourself out there. But in anything you do, there will be that ugly duckling phase where things are not great. Things are not sweet. It's not as polished as maybe you want it to be. And the only thing that gets in the way of that ugly duckling becoming a creative swan is judgment. So can we delay judgment? Can we again, what is judgment? It's a personally goic reaction as the inner game of tennis says it's good and bad compared to it just is. It's just the creative process. It's just your process. And this is where you are and you're collecting information. And that's neutral. And we are taking steps forward to just continue to develop this product to make it the best that you can make it. And so what stops the ugly duckling from turning into this beautiful creative swan? It's your ego mind itself one and it's judgment. So if we could just delay judgment and continue to just show up and be eager to take the smallest step forward, that is what puts us where we want to be. So now I just want to give you a couple examples of people who have completely devoted themselves to what they're doing. I shared with you already, Rafael Nadal. I highly recommend that you go and watch that. It's unbelievable. And I think it's honestly my favorite documentary I've ever seen. But Rafael Nadal, again, I think it's a full blown vocation. He had 912 consecutive weeks in the world top 10 that's nearly 18 years. He is the only player in tennis history to be ranked number one in three different decades. He is 14 French open titles. And that is the most ever at a single grand slam. And his 112 and four record is the greatest single tournament win rate of all time. Now again, shout out Charlotte Corkins. These are these little synchronisities that happen so often. It happened last podcast as well. But as I was outlining literally in my journal, this outline for this podcast, doing it the long hard stupid way. Charlotte sends me a text message from a quote from Rafael Nadal from the documentary. Here's a quote from Rapha. I was suffering, but I was also enjoying myself competing and competing at the highest level. So yes, he was suffering during this long-hard stupid process, right? But he was also enjoying himself competing and competing at the highest level. And then the Bible verse that Charlotte sent with this idea of Raphael suffering, but also enjoying himself competing comes from Romans 5 verses 3 through 4. It says, "Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings because we know that suffering produces perseverance. Perseverance, character, and character hope." And so through suffering, you receive perseverance. It produces perseverance. It produces character and it produces hope. And so there is meaning in your suffering. This is the idea of man's search for meaning, right? It's such a beautiful thing. And you see it in Raphael taking the long-hard stupid way, and he finds meaning in the suffering. He creates something super beautiful that will transcend time and will inspire people for generations. And through his suffering and through his devotion and through his abode for his craft, it's inspired you and I to be great at what we do now. Now some other examples of the long-hard stupid way, Jerry Seinfeld. He wrote every single day. He put a calendar on his wall. And he would mark an X for every day that he didn't write. And his greatest goal was to not break the chain. Now what was Jerry Seinfeld's greatest successes? Because obviously he did this a long-hard stupid way. He followed his process. He was committed to his process. Well, he co-created and starred in Seinfeld. Seinfeld is widely considered the greatest sitcom ever. It's a show that generated billions in revenue. Let's move on to Stephen King. Stephen King was living paycheck to paycheck. He was working jobs that he didn't love. He was writing in a tiny laundry room. He was collecting rejection letters. He would write six pages a day. He treats his writing process like a blue collar job. So every day he wakes up and he writes six pages. I'm going to include a video of him talking to the author of Game of Thrones. And he's talking about his writing process. It's really good. So here it is. Is there anything that you've always wanted to ask me? [LAUGHTER] Because George, I will. [LAUGHTER] Yes, yes, there is something I want to ask you. All right. How the fuck do you write so many books so fast? [LAUGHTER] [APPLAUSE] I think, oh, I've had a really good six months. I've written three chapters. And you've-- [LAUGHTER] --you've sent three books at that time. Here's the thing, OK? There are books and there are books. The way that I work, I try to get out there and I try to get six pages a day. So with a book like End of Watch, when I'm working, I work every day, three, four hours. And I try to get those six pages and I try to get them fairly clean. So if the manuscript is, let's say, 360 pages long, that's basically two months work. It's concentrated, but it's a fairly-- but that's assuming that it goes well. And you do hit six pages a day? I usually do. You don't ever have a day where you sit down there and it's like constipation. And you write a sentence and you hate the sentence. And you check your email and you wonder if you had any talent after all. And maybe you should have been a plumber. Don't you have days like that? No, I mean, there's real life. I can be working away and something comes up. And you have to basically get up and you have to go to see the doctor or you have to take somebody care package or you have to go to the post office because whatever. But mostly, I try to get the six pages in. Although entropy tries to intervene. I did an event at Radio City Music Hall for charity with John Irving and Joe Rowling. And this was the JK Rowling. And this was at the time that she was finishing the seventh Harry Potter books. And I know that I've been very fortunate as a writer. And you've been terrifically fortunate as a writer. You worked for a long time, wrote a lot of good books, won a lot of awards, and then I don't know where all of a sudden this crazy thing happens where all these books are suddenly New York Times bestsellers. And God knows it's deserved, but it's a sort of sudden thing. And here's the other thing, okay? People young at you and say, we want the next book. We want the next book. They're like babies. We want the next book right away. I mean, it's a great thing to want that. But the pressure that you feel or I feel compared to that final Harry Potter book, you know, everybody wanted that. And she came to New York and she was nearly finished with it and she agreed to do this event. And Joe was trying to do three things at once. She was going to do a vacation with her kids. She was going to finish the last five or six chapters of the seventh Harry Potter book. And she was going to do this event. And she showed up to do the soundtrack check at Radio City Music Hall. And she was dressed like any housewife or mother or anyone who was on vacation. She had a shell top on and white clam digger pants and loafers or sandals or something and her hair tied back and horse tails. And we were trying to talk about what we were going to do and everything. And the Scholastic Press publishes is pulling her aside and talking to her. And Joe is very polite. But when she came back and talked to me, she was really, really angry. And what she said was, they don't understand what we do. Do they? And I said, how can they understand what we don't understand? >> [LAUGH] >> All too true. >> So again, that's just an example of what his writing process looked like. It's six pages every single day. And he's doing everything he can to get these pages fairly clean. He is devoted to his work. He was living in a trailer at one point as he was doing all this. Again, writing in a small laundry room, living in a trailer. He is taking the long, hard, stupid way. Those days are not glamorous. But all we see are these great books. There's one of these books that he wrote that is a great book. I can't remember which one it is. But he actually threw it away. And his wife, which is why it matters to have a great partner. His wife goes in the trash and pulls it out and it goes on to be a huge book of his. But what are Stephen King's greatest accomplishments? He has over 400 million books sold. It's incredible. He's one of the best-selling authors in history, obviously. And again, when you think about that, 400 million books sold. And it all started with him writing in a laundry room. It all started with him writing six pages a day, doing it the long, hard, stupid way. Not putting it into chat GPT and taking shortcuts and creating something that lacks taste and lacks authenticity. The next person I'm going to tell you about his Vincent Van Gogh. He experienced poverty. He experienced isolation and mental illness. He, during his lifetime, appeared to have sold almost nothing. I think people say he only sold one painting. And he actually died in the year 1890 at 37 years old. He's largely unknown at this time to the public, even though he created 2,000, around 2,000 artworks. And he created 860 oil paintings. He's widely regarded as one of the most influential painters in Western art history. And yet, he didn't even live to see what his art would become. He's just doing it the long, hard, stupid way to vote it. It's a vocation for him. He loves it. He's committed to the process of what he's doing without being emotionally attached to the outcome of what he's doing. My next example, my final example, is Michelangelo. Michelangelo from the year 1508 to 1512, he worked on the Sistine Chapel, which actually got to see in person. And it's breathtaking. It's incredible. You can literally see God's glory in it. Again, it's just incredible work. But here's the truth of the work. He endured severe physical pain as he was creating the Sistine Chapel. Four years, little tangent. Did you know that Noah, who built the ark, Noah's ark, Noah spent 100 years building the ark. Again, just a tangent, but it's a good example of being devoted to your work. But here we are back to Michelangelo. He spent four years working on the Sistine Chapel. He literally had back and neck pain. He endured pressure from the Pope. He had painting failures. He had paint failures. He had technical problems. There was points where he called the work torture. It's crazy. He said he complained about his beard pointing to heaven. Just take a second to think about that. He's way up in the air, painting the Sistine Chapel for four years. And he said he's complaining about his beard pointing to heaven because his head is looking up so much as he's painting. No wonder he's got neck pain and back pain. He complained about paint dripping on his face and his body being twisted into unnatural positions. Why? To create something beautiful. He created the Sistine Chapel. He also freed David. He's the one that I think he chiseled David out of the rock. He says that he just had to free him, which is another calling, a call back to, you know, we are receiving these gifts. Michael Landrilo saw David in the rock and his job was just to free David from the rock. That is him saying that he received this creativity. It's incredible. St. Peter's Basilica. That's because that's from Michelangelo as well. He says, "If people knew how hard I worked to gain my mastery, it would not seem so wonderful at all." So as we conclude this podcast, I want to reference this book, "Bird by Bird." I mean, she's a phenomenal author. I've just really enjoyed reading her writing. And it's made me, as I'm thinking about being a writer, writing, I don't even know what it's going to be. I don't have to know what it's going to be, but creating something. I've really taken a lot of inspiration from how she talks about the writing process. And I think it complements this idea of going the long, hard, stupid way, because it takes what it takes. And it's not for you to know. It's not for you to understand what the process looks like and when you're going to get results, it's just for you to show up every day in a pod, to work, to serve, and to let your work be an act of worship. It's one in the same work and worship, or one in the same. It's our job to create with a pure intention and to create something that will help other people that will push the world forward. And even if you're an athlete, creating a great product, which is your sport, which is how you play your sport, what does that look like to create a great product? It looks like being really great at what you do, but it also looks out there, it looks like you going out there and being bold and courageous and being a display of Christ, being a display of his glory. How are you so calm? How are you so grounded? How are you so authentic? How are you so bold in yourself in your work and your sport, whenever you're doing? Well, it's because of God. So Lee, Deo, Gloria, Gloria, to God alone, as Bach said, right? This is him working through us. It is not that we are strong, but rather Christ is strong within us. That's how you can make your craft, which is your sport, a beautiful product. It's not about you though. Remember that survival is selfish and creation is selfless, creates for him as an act of worship. So she says here in bird by bird, she says EL, Dr. O once said that writing a novel is like driving a car at night. You can see only as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way. You don't have to see where you are going. You don't have to see your destination or everything you will pass along the way. You just have to see two or three feet ahead of you. That's the long, hard, stupid way. You just have to be able to see two or three feet ahead of you. And just keep on going, just keep on showing up. This is right up there with the best advice about writing or life I have ever heard. She says, so after I've completely exhausted myself thinking about the people that I most resent in the world and my more arresting financial problems. And of course, the orthodontia, I remember to pick up the one inch picture frame and to figure out a one inch piece of my story to tell. One small scene, one memory, one exchange. She's talking about finding a small snippet and just writing that, just committing to that. Small focus, devoting yourself to just this small little task. She says I also remember a story that I know I've told somewhere else, but that over and over helps me to get a grip. 30 years ago, my older brother who was 10 years old at the time was trying to get a report on birth written that he had three months to write, which was due the next day. We were out at our family cabin in Belinas and he was at the kitchen table close to tears surrounded by binder paper and pencils and unopened books on birds. Remember, he's writing a project on he's doing a project on birds immobilized by the hugeness of the task ahead. Then my father, her father was a writer himself sat down beside him put his arm around my brother shoulder and said, bird by bird buddy. Just take it bird by bird and that right there is the process we are taking this bird by bird. She says I tell this story again because it usually makes a dent in the tremendous sense of being overwhelmed that my students experience. Sometimes it actually gives them hope and hope as Chester ten said is the power of being cheerful and circumstances that we know to be desperate writing can be a pretty desperate endeavor because it is about some of our deepest needs are need to be visible to be heard or need to make sense of our lives to wake up and grow and belong. It is no wonder if we sometimes tend to take ourselves perhaps a bit too seriously. So here is another story I tell often. She says in the Bill Murray movie Stripes in which he joins the army. There is a scene that takes place the first night of boot camp where Murray's platoon is assembled in the barracks. They are supposed to be getting to know their sergeant played by Warren Oates and one another. So each man takes a few moments to say a few things about who he is and where he's from. Finally, it is a turn of this incredibly intense angry guy named Francis. My name is Francis. No one calls me Francis and you want to hear who calls me Francis I will kill them. And another thing I don't like to be touched anyone here who ever tries to touch me I will kill them. At which point Warren Oates who again is a sergeant jumps in and says hey lighten up Francis. This is not a bad line to have taped to the wall of your office once again lighten up Francis say to yourself in the kindest way possible. Look honey all we're going to do for now is write a description of the river at sunrise or the young child swimming in the pool to club or the first time the man sees the woman he will marry. That is all we are going to do for now we are just going to take this bird by bird but we are going to finish this one short assignment. So I do believe that this idea of bird by bird compliments everything we're talking about with the long hard stupid way. I hope that this podcast reminds you of your why I hope it reminds you that you were given very specific gifts and it's your job to be a good steward of those gifts and to make the most of them as an act of service and as an act of worship and it's not your job to understand when how or why it's going to happen. I mean again those are survival mindsets who what when where why how survival it's your job to just show up and do the work you have the right to the work you don't have the right to the fruit of the work. And the work works on you more than you work on the work the work is the wind the workmanship means more than the material all these ideas should push you back to remembering not to lose your way to remember that you are in this for the long haul. And long term thinkers are the ones that win always and if you could be in this in this for the long haul and you could be eager to take the smallest step forward and you could take the information and apply it and just be invested in creating the best possible product. Everything else takes care of itself and it's not for you to know when or how that happens do it as an act of a bod shine God's glory you should be so great at what you do. The one thing that you do that you say no to all the other things and when people see your work whether it's your sport it's your creativity whatever it is they see God's glory. They see God's creativity they see God's fingerprints all over it with that being said don't take shortcuts give yourself fully to your craft and let God take care of the rest God I will take care of the quantity you will take care of the quality and I am willing to let God create through me it is safe to let God create through me those are three affirmations from the artist way and yeah. Take the long hard stupid way. See you guys.