Outcomes and effort

Bob Dylan once asked Leonard Cohen how long it took to write the song “Hallelujah.” Cohen replied, “Two years.”

But in fact, it took Cohen five years to write the song and when it was done, his label didn’t even want to release the album it appeared on.

Just because you poured your heart and soul into making a song, it doesn’t mean you’re going to get the recognition you deserve.

When we can learn is to divorce the effort with outcomes, it frees us. We don’t need all of our work to all pan out. We just need some of it to resonate with the people we seek to change.

Sometimes it takes time for your work to resonate. Other times, it won’t pan out.

You can’t control the outcomes but you can always control your effort. Once you’ve made a song, your job is to write another one.

When the great author, Stephen Pressfield, finally finished his first novel his mentor said, “Great. Now start the next one. Today.”

It’s as simple as that.

Without effort there are no desired outcomes.

Everything we want is on the other side of hard. Keep climbing.