“Happiness does not come from doing easy work but from the afterglow of satisfaction that comes after the achievement of a difficult task that demanded our best.”

Theodore Isaac Rubin

Think  back to some of the biggest accomplishments in your life.  Did the satisfaction come from achieving the simple things or was it the completion of some momentous goal?  There is nothing like doing the really hard work and then seeing the finished product.  The beauty of this is that it also creates a desire for more hard work because you know what you are capable of accomplishing when you perform at your best.  

I can’t remember all the easy tasks and accomplishments from my life but I can easily list the efforts that were the hardest to achieve.  I felt happiness but also a sense of purpose and pride, that the hard work was worth it and had paid off.  

I vividly remember being at mile #16 during my last Ironman marathon knowing that I only had 10 miles left to go, that all the pain in my body was temporary, that all the training and effort put in to get that point was paying off.  The last mile of the race was a blur but running through the crowds at the finish line was pain free even though every fiber of my body was tired and ready to quit.  The Ironman race (or any other endurance event) is never really accomplished on race day.  It is completed well beforehand during the long training days and early morning workouts.  The race itself is the reward, the feeling of accomplishment afterwards is the icing on the cake, it becomes the fuel for the next big thing.

The feeling of happiness from accomplishing some great task is both the reward, and the motivation for future endeavors.  What is the next great thing that is worthy of your very best?