> [!NOTE]+ Meta > Author:: David Brooks > Reference:: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/27/opinion/persistence-work-difficulty.html?smid=nytcore-android-share > Date:: 2025 > Tags:: #warp > WeftLinks:: [[Psychological value of craft]] > Claim:: [[Claim - Repetitive craft activity facilitates a mindfulness which improves well-being]] > [!SUMMARY] Summary > Craft is a state of mind that embraces the processes of remorseless work. A passionate life is driven by deep curiosity and a commitment to overcoming challenges. People find meaning through hard work, embracing difficulties instead of avoiding them. This journey leads to personal growth and fulfillment, where effort becomes its own reward. ### Highlights When you see people ensconced in their craft, you’ll notice that they are often living what I’ve come to think of as a Zone 2 life, after the exercise trend. is usually not getting what you want or living with ease; it is living, from one hour to the next, at a level of just manageable difficulty. By the time you’ve reached craftsman status you don’t just love the product, you love the process, the tiny disciplines, the long hours, the remorseless work. “No matter how mundane some action might appear,” Murakami wrote, “keep at it long enough and it becomes a contemplative even meditative act.” It becomes your natural way of living the world. Michelangelo once reported that things were only right with him when he was holding a chisel in his hand. I was once in a grocery store in central Pennsylvania when I noticed that every jar on every shelf was carefully aligned. Nietzsche famously wrote that he who has a why to live for can endure any how. The sculptor Henry Moore exaggerated but still captured the essential point: “The secret of life is to have a task, something you devote your entire life to, something you bring everything to, every minute of the day for your whole life. And the most important thing is — it must be something you cannot possibly do!”