If you’ve ever read Jon Acuff you’ve heard of the word hustle. Hustle is the willingness to beat your body until it does the thing you want it to do. This could mean cutting out sleep, movies or TV, and even time you would normally be eating, in order to get something done. It’s the all nighter, the first months or years of the business, or the last push right before a product launch.

For most of us, hustle is the last thing we have in our arsenal when sleep tugs at the corner of our eyes and our rational side tells us to not work so hard, that this dream of yours can wait until tomorrow.

The truth is that our dreams can never wait until tomorrow. The promise of tomorrow is the first step down a slippery slope. You’ll find yourself watching reruns and HGTV. I know I do. Then your dreams will be just dreams – someplace you’ll get to in the murky future.

I assure you of this. No successful person wakes up one day to find that they arrived at someplace they never intended to go. Mr. Acuff himself says in his book Quitter that writing for him is not something he wants to do in his free time.

But why does he do it?

Because he wants to be intentional with his limited time. He wants to focus on the things he loves, that matter, that will last.

And I believe this is the true meaning and sweet spot of hustle. It should feel awkward. It is usually hard. But it is worthwhile.

So fellow creative, if you are working hard on your dream and it is more difficult than you than ever imagined, you’re in a good place.

So push hard. Don’t give into easy. Instead, hustle.