Hard work you believe in feels completely different from hard work you’re forced into. Look for the first kind.

Both kinds leave you tired, which is why effort on its own is a bad measure of whether something suits you. The difference shows up afterwards. One sort of tiredness has something you wanted at the end of it, and the other just takes. Over years, that gap decides a surprising amount.

Notice how you feel after a hard practice or shift this week, rather than during it. Where you get a choice about what to pour effort into, let that feeling count for more than how impressive the thing sounds.