From Don’t Believe Everything You Think by Joseph Nguyen:
While a job may be demanding, does that mean it must lead to suffering? Or put another way: Is it absolutely true that every person who has the same intense job feels the exact same way about that job?
The ability to work hard is trainable like a muscle.
It is also common—whether in medical school struggling to land a residency or in residency waiting for attendinghood or being an attending already searching the horizon for retirement—to look forward to milestones:
There are two sources of goals: goals created out of inspiration and goals created out of desperation.
When we dig a little deeper into these types of desperation goals, we see they are all typically “means goals” and not “end goals.” In other words, we want to accomplish the goal in order to get something else, which is why these goals make us feel that we never have enough.
The effectance motive is the only antidote for the arrival fallacy. Being miserable while waiting is a choice. Working hard isn’t always worse: it depends so much on what you’re doing, where you’re doing it, who you’re doing it with, and why you’re doing it. Not all of those facets are necessarily going to be the good ones on any given day or task, but you get to choose your labels and perspectives.
When it’s time to best fill the time you do have, perhaps this thought experiment would help:
If I had infinite money, had no fear, and didn’t feel the need to receive any recognition, what would I do or create?