I have read at least three articles/posts recently that talk about doing the “hard work”. The pay off comes when you put yourself to the tasks that feel the hardest to accomplish. The hard work is where the progress lives. Seems most people go for the perceived easy. Watching tv or surfing the internet. And then they feel like they’ve not had a satisfying weekend. There’s no challenge in passively watching and clicking.
I know I work hard. I work all day everyday at keeping my world in order and clean and organized and fed. But Hard Work is different from working hard. For years I thought they were the same.
Hard Work is sometimes the work that you avoid. Maybe for years even. Because maybe it means a lot to you. It may mean change and challenging a lifestyle or choices you have come to assume was your life’s definition. Usually Hard Work is not dreadful but hopeful. Don’t confuse Hard Work as doing the job you think you should do with the job you really want to be doing. If your dread is because you hate being an accountant, then your real hard work lies in training yourself to do the thing you really always wanted to do. Like being a martial arts teacher. Training and learning your passion will make the “being an accountant” kind of hard work a little easier until you can be done with it.
For me, Hard Work is writing an “about the author” blurb about myself. A synopses of my soul that never feels like it says what I want it to. Or submitting my work for publication, because I really do want it and what if I succeed? Hard Work can be mundane and necessary like chopping vegetables for a salsa or writing out those Christmas card addresses on a bojillion envelopes. But Hard Work is also the job that once it’s done, you feel super good about yourself and super righteous for having done it. Not doing the work just makes you feel sad and ashamed and that is just no fun. So I dare you to get up, ignore email, online, and boob tube for one day, and see how much hard work you can devote yourself to to move your life into another groove. It’s worth the effort. So are you.
5 Comments
Thanks for this little kick in the pants, Shalagh. It’s true the hard work is called hard for a reason. It makes us uncomfortable and it’s challenging. It stretches the mind. Great post!
Thanks so much Amy. I look forward to having the time and mental space to do the hard work come March and Daycare time!!! And I hope you let me know what I can support you in and perhaps we’ll do the NaNoWriMo next November?
Love,
Shalagh
Hard work could be something tiny but monumental in time and mental energy, YES!
These here blogs can look pretty and such but sometimes the smallest post takes the most work!
It’s all worth it, and you too 🙂
As you well know Jennifer, blogging’s not a great way to get all of your “like me” needs met. Sometimes it’s all crickets. So it’s perspective that makes the hard work mean more. I do this because I committed to myself to become the me I was always meant to be. And every decision and project I make and take on is toward that goal. The hard work will lead to the easier soul in the end.
Thanks for being here and there.
Love,
Shalagh
Thought provoking