Is It Worth The Effort?

Our capacity to deal with struggle and effort is a function of how much it’s worth to us to endure – not the level of crap we have to deal with.

Consider. You are earning £50K working crazy hours, for a psychotic boss and have an endless stream of nonsense coming your way. You are unhappy and don’t want to put up with the scenario any longer.

Out of the blue, it is recognised that the sh@t you have endured is totally out of scale to your remuneration. You are offered £200k. Suddenly you are happy – because the salary makes the hassle ‘completely worth it’.

 

So it’s not actually about the pain or the hassle itself, but rather the level of recompense that comes with it.

My uncle owned a business that did the horrible, dangerous, dirty industrial painting jobs for the most painful clients – jobs that no other contractor wanted. He charged a small fortune for the privilege and was very happy.

Raise the Stakes.

I recall telling an old mentor of mine that a client was giving me loads of hassle and that it just wasn’t worth the effort.

Her advice. Keep putting your fees up until one of two things happen first:

1. The increased fee level compensates for the hassle.
2. The client walks away and the hassle is removed.

Over the years I’ve deployed both tactics and they both work.

Its Not Just The Money That Needs To Shift.

Caveat. Sometimes though, we need to hang around and put up with crap for more than monetary gain only.

• We need to learn to handle difficult people – because otherwise they’ll just keep showing up to ‘teach the lesson’.
• We need to stay until we have learnt to say no and stand up for ourselves.
• We need to learn to ask for what we want with 100X more boldness.
• We need to see this dark place as a stepping stone to a better place (if it is) and practice sucking it up and being a bit more resilient.

If you are thinking of handing in your notice or terminating the contract – first try the raising the money to a level that will bring you peace.