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Most people want the results. The win, the wealth, the big moments. But not everyone is willing to do the hard work it takes to get there. Most people see the promotion, not the years of showing up early and staying late. They see the finish line photo, not the 5 a.m. runs in the rain. They see the name, not the nights it took to earn it. Everyone wants the results, but very few are willing to work hard for it. Everyone wants a shortcut. Everyone wants the secret. Here’s the truth. The shortcut is hard work. Welcome back to the 925 Wellness Podcast, the podcast where career growth meets health. I’m your host, Aisha Tahir, and every week I share practical tools for taking care of your health while building the career you want. Today, I want to talk about a concept that has been coming up with a couple of my clients in my conversation with them while I was working with them this week. And it just kept popping up in our conversations. So I figured it was worth bringing to the pod because if my clients are wrestling with it, chances are a lot of you are too. This episode is a little different. It’s less like here are five stretches for your desk, or here are five tips to have a nutritious breakfast and lunch, and more of a mindset check, which I believe mindset is at the base of all the changes that we make. One that I’ve had to give myself more than once. Yes, and at times I’m like scrolling past other people’s wins and stories. And slowly, without noticing, I’ve caught myself expecting the results without the reps. So let’s talk about that. Now, I want to share a story with you about my childhood. And this is one of the stories I often share with people when they ask me about my business and my business acumen and my work ethic. And that is related to directly related to the story. That when I was a kid, I used to go to my dad’s office after school. What I remember isn’t a big title or a corner office. It’s him working late into the night, head down, finishing his projects. Long hours, sleepless nights, and nobody’s clapping. At the time, I didn’t think much of it. But now I realize I was watching the part of success most people never see. That’s where my work ethic comes from, not from a speech, but from watching someone do the unglamorous work. Yes, my dad never, like, you know, used to preach it to us necessarily. Um, he always wanted good for us. Um, but he wasn’t like, oh, okay, you should be working the same way I do, but he always set the example consistently when no one was watching. But still, when I’m looking at the highlight reels and looking at people I admire, sometimes I do catch myself seeing only the results. And I know a lot of other people do around me too, because you know, sometimes it comes up in my conversation with my friends. I don’t see the drafts that got rejected, the projects that failed, the mornings they didn’t feel like showing up and did it anyways. I see the wins, not the work, the results, not the reps, the name, not the nights it took to earn it. So what happens is I get asked this question or a version of this question all the time at workshops, after my talks, in my DMs. What’s the secret? What’s the secret to weight loss? What’s the secret to changing my body composition? What’s the secret to improving my VO2 max? What’s the secret to balancing a full-time job with a business? What’s the secret to running a marathon? What’s the secret to getting promoted? And I understand. I understand why people want to know this. I’ve asked it too. I’ve wanted someone to hand me the hack and let me skip the hard part. But here’s the truth. I keep coming back to the shortcut is hard work. Let me just put it out. The shortcut is hard work. And for me, it looks like this doing the hard work when nobody’s watching. The prep, the practice, the emails, the edits that no one will ever applaud. Yes, it’s all homegrown. I do it myself. Showing up when I am dead tired. Yes, I have a split life between suburbs of Philly where my kids are and in New York. I am so tired the days I have to travel. Recording at the studio after the travel, recording after a full day at my 9 to 5, recording after I’ve traveled. Lacing up when my legs are so heavy, getting better when things aren’t going my way. Not just enduring the bad seasons, but using them to improve. And honestly, the biggest component of having a bad season or a hard time to go through a hard time is learning from the experiences and the obstacles. That’s it. That’s the secret. It’s not. So let’s talk about rushing the process because I’ve done it. I’ve wanted to do it for a very long time. Like, you know, when I first started out as a fitness professional, as on my fitness journey, you know, I wanted to rush it all. I’ve done it. I wanted the next opportunity before I’d mastered the one in front of me. I’ve wanted the race day result without respecting the base miles. I’ve wanted the business to be further along than the work I’d put into it. And every time I’ve rushed, I missed what actually prepares me for success. Yes, you know what prepares you for success? What prepares you for success is the process. Let me break it into three things. The lessons from failure. Yes, you have to fail. To succeed, you have to fail. Failure is the data. Every project of mine that flopped, every pitch that landed, or every pitch that didn’t land, taught me something a shortcut could never do. So when I skip the process, this is what I miss. The first thing that I miss are the lessons from failure. Failure is data. Every project of mine that flopped, every pitch that didn’t land, that taught me something a shortcut could never have done. When I tried to skip the hard lessons and the hard seasons, I’ve shown up to big moments without the playbook, and I’ve fallen right on my face. Second thing that I miss when I skip the process, which is, you know, patience, it takes patience, is the relationships forged in the trenches. Some of the most important people in my career were there when things got messy. People who stayed late with me when something broke. People who showed up for me when I couldn’t give them anything. The ones who saw me struggle and believed in me, anyways. Those relationships didn’t form at the finish line. They formed in the grind. Third, the character built when everything goes wrong. I can look good when things are easy. You know, and everyone can look good when things are easy, when things are going their way, when they’re in their comfort zone, they have a steady and stable job, they have a steady and stable relationship, they have a big house to live in. But the real character is built when a deal falls through, when I get passed over, when my body tells me to stop at mile 20. That’s character. And I can’t download it. I have to build it. So those are the three most important things. Now, let’s talk about talent because then a lot of people start uh deflecting towards talent. Oh, this person was born with this talent. They come from a line of athletes. So that is why they get to win and I don’t. Now, here’s something I’ve seen over and over and over again in sports and at work and in business. Talent alone doesn’t win. I’ve seen plenty of talented athletes who didn’t want to put in the work. And I’ve watched them get passed up by the one who just kept showing up, the one who embraced the grind, the one who was willing to do the hard work every single day. I see the same thing in the workplace. Talent gets noticed, consistency gets you trusted. Because I know she’ll show up, I know she’ll compete, I know she’s willing to do the work most people will avoid. And I’ll be honest, that’s who I want to be forever, like for the longest time that I can remember, since I was like a little kid. That’s who I wanted to be. And till this date, till now, that’s who I want to be, who I identify as. The most dependable one. The one people can count on when it matters, at the end of the day, that’s the separator. Who’s willing to do the hard work? Let’s take a look at it with the stoic lens, because the stoic lens gave me a better way to look at all of this. So Marcus Aurelius wrote that what stands in the way becomes the way. So I try to treat every obstacle as an opportunity. Not necessarily to win, but to practice. Patience, my growth has a timeline I don’t fully control. Resilience, I get knocked down and I get back up again and again. Integrity. I do it right when the shortcut is right there. Grit. I stay with it long after the excitement wears off. I learned this most clearly through distance running. My marathon training has never been glamorous. No, oh, it’s it actually is really gross and tiring and fatiguing. But it’s consistency. It’s like the easy miles, the long runs, the tempo runs, the speed workouts, recovery days. There are weeks where I don’t see any improvement, and then on race day, all those invisible reps show up at once. But let me tell you this, my friends. There’s no shortcut. There is no shortcut to mile 26. I can’t hack my aerobic base. My body only adapts to the work that I actually put in. My career works the same way. I don’t always get to choose what happens to me, but I do choose what it makes of me. I want to bring this home because I’ve noticed the same results without reps mindset show up in how I treat my own health sometimes. I want the energy, I want the focus, the fitness, and sometimes I’m tempted by the quick fix that as a clinical exercise physiologist, I know better my body rewards consistency, not short bursts of intensity. So here are the three things I’m practicing to honor the process at work and in my health, and I think you can do it too. So pick one boring rep and protect it. A walk after lunch, going to bed at the same time every night, one focused hour on a skill I’m building, small, repeatable, non-negotiable. I track my inputs, not just my outcomes. Instead of only asking, did I hit the goal? I ask, did I show up for work today? My inputs are in my control. The outcomes follow. I reframe my next obstacle. When something goes wrong, a tough meeting, a missed workout, a rejection, I ask myself, what is this letting me practice? Patience, resilience, grit. I turn the setback into a rep. So three things boring rep with consistency. Track your inputs, not just the outcomes, and then reframing the next obstacle that you head into. So here’s the commitment I’m making this week. I’m going to stop looking for the secret myself. I’m going to show up when I’m tired, which I’m trying to do my best, and I’m going to do the hard work when nobody’s watching. And I’m going to put my trust in the process because the shortcut is the hard work. And when I skip the process, I skip the growth. So this goes out for you guys too. If you want results, if you want wins, if you want confidence, if you want the big moments, guess what? It takes hard work, it takes consistency. If this episode resonated with you, I’d love for you to share it with someone in their own grind season. And if you haven’t already subscribed and left a review for 925 Wellness Podcast on your platform of choice, please do it now. It helps more busy professionals find the show, and I’m looking forward to talk to you soon again. Bye.