In the immortal words of all that is holy, in the name of Rihanna and Rupaul, Patrón Saints of living your best life according to your own rules, on this spring day in the year of our Lord two thousand seventeen - "Work!" The work is important. The doing of said work is important. You must do it. The process will be dirty. There's something about it. Learn to do it, because it doesn't matter how tired you are.
An Excerpt from the Book of Work - Rihanna
I been work, work, work, work, work, work
You see me I be work, work, work, work, work, work
You see me do me dirt, dirt, dirt, dirt, dirt, dirt
There's something 'bout that work, work, work, work, work, work
When you a gon' learn, learn, learn, learn, learn, learn
Me na care if me tired, tired, tired, tired, tired, tired
The Work, the manifestation of hours of thought and arduous process, is amazing. The DOING of work, however, is a completely different beast altogether. And we know this to be true, because a lot of people stay dreamers. We've all been there.
The doing of the work, the process of creating, the making of the thing, requires two things: Grind and Consistency. Grind and Consistency. Grind and Consistency. After graduation, gone are the days of forced milestones of paper deadlines, popped quizzes, blitzed exams. Nope. I don't have a handler a la Britney Spears so if I want to achieve/manifest anything of merit, I have to do that work my GotDam self.
Excerpt cont'd
There's something 'bout that work,
There's something 'bout that work,
work, work, work, work, work
When you a gon' learn,
learn, learn, learn, learn, learn
Me na care if me tired,
tired, tired, tired, tired, tired
Not gon' lie though, when you're juggling a "day-job" and a 5-minute Snapchat curiousity turns into a 5-hour "Living Single" binge, the vortex of distraction becomes real. It's happened to me. Yes, I was embarrassed. Yes, I did judge myself. Yes, I then proceeded to watch another youtube clip. I'M NOT PERFECT! NO, I'M NOT BEING SENSITIVE. YES, YOU ARE BEING HARD ON ME. Okay. I'm done.
And while the things I wanna do (writing, performing, producing, teaching), are enjoyable things for me, it can be easy to fall prey to feelings of tedium because... well consistency. Consistency in work is what leads to results. Continued results manifests legacy. And legacy is what we're all after. We're all fighting time and wanting to leave "proof" of our existence. A footnote that we were here. That we did something with our gifts. Yes it's ego, but ego can lead to good things. Using something your naturally good at, or were nurtured into cultivating, and exploiting the shit out of it is good. (Exploit: to make full use of and derive benefit from.) You used it to be fucking useful, used it for the greater good, because hell, we're here ain't we? Might as well do something with yourself.
So. Get. To. Work...work...work...work...work...work... right after I finish watching this Rihanna video. I promise.
PS. If you read the lyrics to the song, Drake, being very drake-onion, was still trying to distract Rihanna from her work in this video.