Sometimes, even video games become a grind. But that doesn’t mean we stop playing. In fact, for some of us, that’s the goal.
Grinding is a term used in gaming (especially for on-going games where you build a character) when you repeat the same actions over and over to increase your experience/in-game cash/equipment or something else. It could mean that you play the same level over and over, or the same mini-game countless times. I have run through the same missions in Destiny more times than I’d like to admit in my quest to have a top-tier character…
What makes it a grind is that you aren’t doing anything new, you aren’t uncovering new content or having fresh experiences. It’s the same thing over and over again. The people who talk about the gamification of business forget about this, they only focus on the exciting parts of games, not the boring ones.
And it’s fascinating that we’ll go through the grind in a virtual world because life is already a grind. We don’t have to escape to video games to find that. If you remember the old Dunkin Donuts “it’s time to make the donuts” guy, he was grinding.
Don’t Run from the Grind
But here’s the secret: grinding is necessary for success. It’s great to learn and have new experiences, but a lot of success comes through doing the same activities over and over.
Too many people fail to realize that “hard work” is rarely exciting, it’s usually boring as hell.
The trick is to make sure that you are grinding towards something that is meaningful to you in the long-run. The Dunkin Donuts guy had a goal of making fresh donuts. It wasn’t lofty, but he knew why he was putting in the effort.
The people that rise to the tops of their fields, that achieve the lofty goals, and that win the acclaim have usually gone through years of grinding through very non-glamorous and unexciting work.
If we’re going to have to put in the rote effort anyways, we might as well work towards a end-goal that is really what you want.
What are you going to grind for this month?