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You are here: Home / Hacks / Do What You Hate

Do What You Hate

October 22, 2012 By Joel Runyon 32 Comments

Do what you love.

I think if I hear that one more time I’m going to throw up.

It’s not necessarily bad advice, but it’s so overused there are legioins of people running around waiting for something they love to show up in their laps and change their life and are disappointed when that doesn’t happen.

I’m going to offer alternative advice.

Do what you hate.

Pick something you hate. Learn to love it anyways.

Here’s why:

Do what you love makes it sounds like all you have to do is find something you love and do it and magic happens. The sky opens up, happiness pours out while unicorns and rainbows prance around in the sky.

That doesn’t happen.

Even the stuff you think you “love” will suck sometimes. Sometimes it will just be plain tough, if not freaking hard and you won’t always want to do it. Sometimes you’ll start to “hate” what you thought you loved and you’ll think something’s wrong. This was supposed to be easy, right?

The truth: sometimes, you have to do somethings you don’t want to do. 

  • Sometimes running is boring.
  • Sometimes you don’t feel like writing.
  • Sometimes you wish other people would worry about your business.
  • Sometimes you want to eat ice cream and watch TV.
  • Sometimes you don’t feel like going to the gym

But you need to do it anyways if you want to be a good runner, writer, businessman, or generally fit person.

Here’s a not-so-secret, secret: I don’t particularly like running. There I said it.

But something happens when I run.

I learn something about myself. I find something out about myself that I didn’t know before.

I have to fight through it. I have to dig deep and find something in myself to keep going. I see my limits and I go past them…and I learn something.

Do something you hate. Learn to love it anyways.

—

Cold Shower Therapy is a great way to tell yourself to toughen the hell up. It’s back open if you’re up for the challenge.

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Filed Under: Hacks Tagged With: annoying advice, cold shower therapy, do what you hate, do what you love

About Joel Runyon

I started IMPOSSIBLE to push myself to try to live a life worth writing about by pushing my limits, living an adventure & telling a great story by doing the impossible. You can get free updates in your inbox via your new favorite newsletter, free fitness training tutorials, and see all my businesses at Impossible X and our philanthropic efforts at Impossible.org

Comments

  1. Ismo Tammi says

    October 22, 2012 at 7:16 am

    I agree with you people hold way too much out for their wishes without dilligent action to back it up. Then wonder why it doesn’t happen. Learning to love what you hate is a great way to expand your horizons, thank you for the idea.

    Reply
  2. Karen says

    October 22, 2012 at 8:23 am

    I love this! I can definitely back up the idea that doing what you love will sometimes suck, too. I am one
    of the fortunate ones who got to follow a career path doing something that I had dreamed of all my life. Even though most days I love it, there are days I wonder what I am doing and why I ever thought I would be good at it. I think something people miss in today’s society is that there are times we just have to do what is placed in front of us and learn to struggle through it. THAT is great accomplishment!

    Reply
  3. Chris says

    October 22, 2012 at 9:44 am

    I think doing what you hate, for a purpose, is an excellent discipline. (And what you were driving at).

    Many people do what they hate because they don’t feel there is an option that they will love (or learn to love). They simply feel trapped (and somehow secure) in what they hate, convinced that anything else has to be at least as bad, or worse.

    In the end, it’s all about purpose, and discipline!

    Great contrarian perspective!

    Reply
  4. Luitha says

    October 22, 2012 at 9:51 am

    LOL, so true, so true. We seem to live in world where easy is the gold standard – that’s what many people want, and if they have to actually make some effort, or face some hard choices, or challenge themselves, they give up 🙂 Show a little warriorship people, please!

    Reply
  5. Rhonda Balmer says

    October 22, 2012 at 11:01 am

    I’m under the impression that NO ONE likes to run, but do it anyway. I took a running class once and after doing some drills the coach said, “Ok, lets go run”…we all groaned. He said, “y’all sound like the track team”. WHAT?? You mean the University track team doesn’t even like to run?? I felt better about myself after hearing that.

    Reply
  6. Priya says

    October 22, 2012 at 1:10 pm

    Awesome alternative advice. *Off to find something I hate.*

    Reply
  7. You As A Machine says

    October 22, 2012 at 1:40 pm

    Love it. Well written. I have always followed this train of thought. If I don’t like doing something, it generally means that I’m not very good at it. When we’re not good at doing something, it means it doesn’t come easy or naturally and so it is much easier to push it aside and focus on what does.
    The only way to get good at something, or be able to perform better at something, is to practice that something.

    I immersed myself into swimming about five years ago. Sure, I could swim to save my life, but not with any proficiency or accuracy. I didn’t really like back stroke, and when I heard my internal dialogue say so, I knew I’d have to work on it. It doesn’t mean that I have to spend a lot of time doing it, but rather, when I do practice it, I practice with my whole being. I dissect it to understand what it is that I don’t like about it. Now I like it, because I can do it. And like you said, being able to do something doesn’t make it easy to do. Just because I like it now doesn’t mean that each time I practice makes it any easier. Each time I visit the stroke I focus on the precision of each micro-movement and continue to break it down.

    Reply
  8. Patrick Hitches says

    October 22, 2012 at 1:55 pm

    Boom.

    And if every single reader doesn’t do Cold Shower Therapy, I’m going to pay personal visits to lay some smack down.

    Reply
  9. Andrew Tucker says

    October 22, 2012 at 2:15 pm

    Totally agree…this is commonlyknown as “Embrace the Suck!” in endurance training circles and is a very useful mantra.

    Reply
  10. Suzanne de Cornelia says

    October 22, 2012 at 2:39 pm

    I love how you synthesize the often overlooked obvious. On reflection I can think of a zillion things that I’ve done, didn’t really feel like doing, but the act of which and the development of the self-discipline muscle made my life more.

    Can’t run any longer due to an accident–but when runners job past on the trail….at least I know what it felt like to everyday go out for a 6-mile run. And still keep in shape with weights.

    Yeah to self-discipine!

    Reply
  11. Kurt Swann says

    October 22, 2012 at 3:34 pm

    Joel!

    Great post! Do-what-you-love people look at life like a movie where the hero always wins and rides off in the sunset after overcoming the bad guys. But in real life when we’re in the middle of something we don’t know how it’s going to turn out.

    That’s when doubt, fear, or pain show up. Then we feel like we hate it. If we knew for sure we would win the Olympic gold then we wouldn’t hate much of anything.

    And like you say, “you learn something about yourself.” That’s a huge part of life. Not just riding off into the sunset but pushing yourself and learning something.

    Kurt

    Reply
  12. sharon says

    October 22, 2012 at 5:11 pm

    I find that I dislike doing things that I am not good at – usually with a lot more practice and learning, I get good and then I like it. And in the past I’ve noticed I avoided things that I disliked. Now, I’m embracing them and the accomplishment makes me feel good about myself.

    Reply
  13. Cleriston says

    October 22, 2012 at 6:18 pm

    Hi Joel, I like so much your vision and opnion about a lot of things, especially about Do what we hate. It’s great, because when I do something that I hate I can love this with the result that I got from this thing.
    Doing something that we love is so easy, but It’s not enough to complete our own objects. Thanks for sharing this one.

    Reply
  14. Sandra at Thistle Cove Farm says

    October 22, 2012 at 7:15 pm

    You don’t, necessarily, have to learn to love it anyway; just do it.

    Reply
  15. Taylor says

    October 23, 2012 at 11:27 am

    I was promised unicorns.

    Reply
  16. Gwen says

    October 24, 2012 at 1:56 pm

    Fan-freaking-tastic.

    Reply
  17. Justin Miller says

    October 24, 2012 at 2:30 pm

    Feeling you Joel. I definitely preach doing more of what you love and less of what you don’t but its important to realize that testing yourself and trying new things is so vitally important to personal growth. Great read here brotha!

    Reply
  18. Rita says

    October 24, 2012 at 4:19 pm

    I hate spin.

    I just signed up for classes. 🙂

    Reply
  19. Jay Thornton says

    November 1, 2012 at 4:23 pm

    Another great post. I’m right in the middle of starting several things I hate. Quitting smoking, working out, and getting healthy. This post and several of your other ones are pushing me along and I thank you.

    I’m on day 5 of doing what I hate. Feel free to help my people cheer me on / make fun of me and thank you again for the inspiration.

    Reply
  20. Gaye says

    November 18, 2012 at 2:55 pm

    I loved this article so much I just gave it a shout out in my new blog post. http://www.confettidrop.com/anybody-want-some-kool-aid/

    Reply
  21. Jim says

    January 15, 2013 at 4:10 am

    Great advice here and something I’ve been working on lately. Overcoming procrastination by challenging myself to do the things I “hate” or “strongly dislike”. Embrace the suck as someone stated earlier.

    There’s a certain motivation in pushing forward and overcoming disliked tasks. I’ve been focusing on the dislike portion more and it seems to drive me to accomplish more things. The more disliked – the better.

    A simple exercise I’ve used before is going into a restaurant and ordering a meal that I think I will NOT enjoy. This challenges me to expand my comfort zone and to try new things. It turns out to be a fun. You have to eat the meal, can’t ignore it or you’ve defeated the purpose.

    Same principle applies to work tasks or home chores. Pick something you don’t especially enjoy and go for it. Focus on the “suck” and press on. It’s more rewarding once these tasks are complete. The tasks I love doing seem to take care of themselves.

    Reply
  22. J says

    December 24, 2015 at 12:42 am

    I think that in the end, people are called to value something greater than themselves, and so doing things we “hate” stems truly from a love of challenging one’s self. Which one could argue isn’t truly doing what you hate becase there is a deeper love behind what you do.

    I can also see how much more advantage can come from starting something you “hate” and working very much towards it than putting little time to something you “love.” But I can also see how thinking you can learn to love something can also be twisted if you aren’t careful. Burn-out is real and damaging.

    Otherwise, great points. Thank you for this!

    Reply

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