Over the years, you've probably asked yourself countless questions about what you want.
What do I want my career to be?
What do I want out of life?
What do I want my legacy to be?
But, over those very same years, you've also most likely learned that success is often determined by our struggles.
You may dream of becoming a famous singer, for example, but soon find out that you don't want to put the work in; you just want the end result. You're not interested in practicing three hours a day, having band practice, lugging all of your gear to grungy bars and clubs, etc.
You just want to skip right to that level 10: the huge crowd cheering for you after you nailed that solo. The fame, the fortune.
Everyone has dreams like this. Sometimes this also a way that we "weed out" potential careers: we've all worked a job that we thought would be great, but turned out to be soul-crushing in the day-to-day.
We've all started at the lowest rung on the ladder with hopes of reaching the top someday.
The question you should really ask yourself is:
What pain do you want?
We're not talking about the old cliche "no pain, no gain."
This question is designed to make you think about what goal is important enough to you that you're willing to struggle to reach it.
What goals are so important to you that you're willing to go through the drudgework, the stuff you hate, in order to reach the work you love?
Spend some time with this question today.
Reflect on your past career and life decisions where this question may have been helpful.
Use it to think about the feasability and strength of your current desires, in both your life and your career.