Saw Frances Tiafoe play the other day. Again. Seems like the guy is just… always there, you know? Constant presence on the tour, grinding it out. Win or lose, he shows up. It got me thinking about this whole idea of being ‘constant’ in what you do.
My Own Grind
It reminded me of this little challenge I set for myself a while back. I had this side project, just a little web tool I wanted to build for myself. Nothing fancy. But like most side projects, it just sat there. I’d poke at it for a weekend, then forget about it for months.
So, I decided I needed to be more like Tiafoe – maybe not in tennis skills, obviously – but in just showing up. I told myself: one hour, every single day, on this project. No excuses.
Here’s how it actually went down:
- Week 1: Full of steam. Easy peasy. Got the basic structure up. Felt great. Was totally nailing this ‘constant’ thing.
- Week 2: Okay, reality bites. Some days I was tired after my main job. Other days, I just didn’t feel like it. Had to literally drag myself to the computer. Found myself just staring at the screen sometimes, or fixing tiny little bugs just to say I did something.
- Week 3: This was the real test. Hit a big roadblock. Couldn’t figure out this one piece of logic. Spent like three whole sessions just banging my head against the wall. Almost gave up, seriously. Thought, “This is dumb, why am I forcing this?”
- Week 4: Pushed through that roadblock (turned out I was making a really simple mistake, typical). Suddenly, progress felt faster again. Started adding the final touches. It wasn’t perfect, far from it, but it was actually working.
What I Found Out
Being ‘constant’ wasn’t about making huge leaps every day. Nah, most days were just small steps, sometimes barely moving forward at all. It was more about the rhythm. Just sitting down and doing the time, putting in the effort, even when it felt pointless.
It wasn’t about motivation, it was just about the doing. Like, you don’t see Tiafoe asking if he feels like playing a tough second-round match. He just goes out and plays.
Did I finish the project completely? Pretty much. Got it to a usable state, which was the goal. The bigger thing was realizing that just consistently chipping away actually works. It’s not glamorous, mostly boring actually, but things get done.
So yeah, watching Tiafoe reminded me of that little experiment. Sometimes you just gotta keep plugging away, be constant. That’s the real work.
