“Hard work is often the accumulation of easy tasks we did not do when we should have.”
Jean-Jacques Rousseau
We all prefer to start our day with tasks we enjoy and leave the ones we dislike for later. At the office, if we are outgoing, we may schedule meetings first, talk to people, and handle interactions. We leave reports, spreadsheets, and detailed work for the end of the day. If we are more technical, we focus on analysis early and delay meetings, customer visits, or personnel conversations as much as possible.
Some people can almost never be made to do what they dislike. You may assign an urgent task, but they drag it out for hours or days, insisting they must first “finish what they are focused on”, and by the time they act, the company has already faced serious consequences.
In sales teams, a common pattern appears. Representatives cling to regions they know and feel comfortable in. You establish route plans, but after a while they drift back to their preferred territories and bring numerous arguments to justify it. Many do not like traveling to distant regions; extended travel feels too demanding. As a result, expansion to new markets is slowed or blocked.
These behaviors are natural, not abnormal. When wise people say “the secret of success is to do what you love”, they are not wrong. We achieve higher output and better results when we enjoy what we do.
A meal cooked without love lacks flavor. A tired, rushed cook will likely make mistakes. The same person, relaxed on a weekend, investing care and passion, can produce excellent dishes.
However, being a professional means going beyond our natural preferences. A professional chef must cook every dish with care, not only the ones they enjoy. Someone who loves grilling meat but hates preparing fish will struggle to be considered truly good. Customers may come specifically for the dish the cook personally dislikes.
The key is to recognize where our resistance lies. Whatever we resist the most is where our lesson is. We must consciously override this resistance and do what needs to be done on time.
Some of the biggest gaps in our performance arise from postponing what we dislike. Deferred problems give temporary relief but return bigger and more complex. This prevents us from becoming complete leaders. We remain function specialists or mid-level professionals. In real life, priorities shift daily, and sometimes we must spend days doing things we do not particularly enjoy.
One of the criteria for success is not only the ability to do what we love, but the ability to do what we do not love when it is necessary.
That article came from the experiments we have conducted over the years.
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