Random thoughts about Hard Work:
- It’s scarcer than we like to admit. Even if what you do is common or boring, your hard work is still a very valuable quality, specially if you‘re working for someone else.
- It’s useless unless it’s noticed and appreciated. It’s better to be seen as a hard worker even if you aren’t one, rather than being a hard worker and not being seen as one. I’d recommend spending 80% of your time working hard and improving yourself, and no less than 20% on your self-promotion, until you get the word of mouth rolling at least. (Sparked by Rebecca Thorman)
- Faking it is easy. The time you spend matters more than the results. You can fail often and still be considered a hard worker.
- Only works when focused. Being a hard worker because of morality is a waste of energy. Working hard is not supposed to be “the right thing to do”, is supposed to be useful.
- Hard work and practice are pretty much related, and if they aren’t for you, they should be. It’s by hard work and practice that you can better yourself or learn new things. It’s all about the time you invest on improvement/results. (Sparked by Monica O’Brien)
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Love these thoughts – and thanks for the shout-out. One thing I’ll add is that I don’t think hard work is scary actually. For me, it’s not anyway. What’s scary is thinking about settling, or a life that’s dull. Lately, hard work and productivity – at work, in relationships, etc. – has kept me sane. I think what’s scary about it is that hard work might actually, well, work. And then you’ll have to keep going
Good one, nice addition to the list. I agree, once you find purpose for your hard work, it’s a must for a healthy life.
Hardcore agree on the morality thing. It’s completely useless if you are doing it out of necessity/some misguided commitment. It should benefit you and your company.
I really like this list. Particularly (sparked by Monica) is the fact that practice goes along with hard work. You’re constantly learning along the way and if you’re investing time and energy into your hardwork, then you have to make a few mistakes and practice to get it right. Great thoughts here, Carlos!
I love this list too! Great point about putting in the effort. Even if you ultimately fail at accomplishing whatever it is you were working towards, the hard work you put in still shows a lot about you. It also makes failure easier to deal with because at least you know that you gave it your all. Great points!
“It’s scarcer than we’d like to admit,” is so true. The vast majority (I genuinely believe this) go to their jobs and on most days try to do these least amount of work possible to keep their jobs. I hear my parents talk about what a damn shame it is, and how hard they used to work in their day. I don’t have a lot to compare it against, but I do know that my Dad and my parents friends do work, hard. I know that many of my friends (there are exceptions) don’t. Is this a legitimate shift? Is my sample size the exception? Too small?
Also, I’d add to your list that hard work comes in different forms. Some people are capable of giving 85% effort throughout the course of an entire day. Others can work really hard for 2 hours, but then need 30 minutes to rest and rejuvenate. Some work best in the morning, some work best in the middle of the night – like 2 people in the world work best right after lunch. The point: we’re different. So is hard work.
I think I agree when it comes to results. But more square-minded people may still see that half hour that you spend resting as laziness even if you accomplish more than slower people.
That is SUCH an important distinction. Hard work that makes you better at what you are doing is effective “smart” hard work. Hard work that just keeps you busy is the entire reason they coined the term “busy work.” And busy work is definitely not something that you want to put time and effort into.
I was at a seminar for work a couple months ago and they were talking about the attributes of successful people. The speaker for this particular session was talking about the old phrase “work smarter, not harder.” He spoke about the fact that these are two things that should not be exclusive of each other. Successful people work, and when they do it is smart AND hard.
Another great thought that we could add to the list. Working hard and smart is a deadly combination. For example, I see myself as a smart worker, but maybe I could work a littler harder. I’m sure most people could improve one of those aspects of their work attitude. Thanks Elisa.
Your point about hard work being useless unless noticed is very true. I feel life is far more about perception than actual results. In one company I worked at early in my career, I worked insanely hard. However, the other members of my team were pretty slack. We all equally shared in the reprimands and salary.
Also, months of hard work can be lost with only one or two cases of perceived lack of productivity. People have trouble evaluating long term performance, they only remember recent incidents. Thousands of hours of hard work can be lost with one big mistake or even perceived mistake.
Probably even more important that hard work is social skills. Your friendship and connection with management will take you a lot further than hard work ever will. Everyone loves charismatic, positive slackers. We also universally hate hardworking, but grumpy complainers. Spend your time being nice and you probably won’t have to work as hard.