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How Do You Enjoy the Journey When the Journey Kind of Sucks?
Beyond productivity tips and tricks.
Marina Wyss
July 10, 2025
Welcome to Gratitude Driven, a weekly newsletter where I share practical ideas and insights across personal growth, professional development, and the world of AI and data science.
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How Do You Enjoy the Journey When the Journey Kind of Sucks?
If you’re reading this, I’m assuming you have big goals. Maybe you want to become an AI Engineer, launch a business, or master some technical skill.
One common mistake I see in pursuit of dreams is that we fixate on the destination—some magical moment when we'll finally accomplish what we’ve set out to do, and will finally be happy. We think the goal is about reaching some future state.
Really, though, goals themselves are things you want to experience, if you think about it. The process is the goal. The present moment is all we actually have, so ideally, we need to to find a way to enjoy the journey.
But what happens when the path feels anything but enjoyable? Take an aspiring ML Engineer facing years of math homework they may never vibe with. The gap between their vision and daily reality can feel crushing.
We try to shield ourselves from unpleasant emotions with distractions or procrastination. Sometimes we attempt to gamify the experience, or use “productivity hacks” to get ourselves to have fun. Yet some activities will never be pleasant to us. No amount of motivation tricks or mental gymnastics will make us love them.
And in my opinion, that’s actually fine just the way it is.
The most successful people are willing to expose themselves to the depths of emotion—including the uncomfortable ones. They understand that avoidance isn't the answer.
This insight forms the foundation of the book I'm writing: how to make the most of activities we don't enjoy so we can live more fully, purposefully, and productively. One of the most powerful strategies is really simple: just be fully present in the activity.
When discomfort arises in life, get curious about it rather than running away.
What does this resistance actually feel like?
Where do you notice it in your body?
How does your mind respond?
This kind of unemotional observation in the present moment can transform even the least pleasant tasks into something genuinely interesting, even beautiful.
By fully accepting our discomfort instead of fighting it, we often find our performance improving naturally. We stop wasting energy on resistance and channel it into engagement instead. The task remains the same, but our relationship to it changes completely, allowing us to perform better regardless of our feelings about the task itself.
How to Learn LLMs from Scratch
If you want to really understand LLMs from the ground up, not just how to build stuff with APIs, this week’s content is for you!
Blog version here!
Help Me Out?
I’m starting a second YouTube channel all about mindset, productivity, and living life well.
I’m very excited about it. I’ve rented a studio space to increase the production quality (I want this channel to be way more vibe-y), and I’m currently in an intensive mentorship program to level-up everything from scripting to visuals.
Give me a follow to support the channel when the first video launches later this month!
Want to chat 1:1? Book time with me here.
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