Hard Work Is Disguised as Hard Work

We live in a world of instant gratification.

We seek the fast, cheap and easy. We consume information, live the vicarious fitness plan via the web, and buy the things that we want without getting out of our chair — in mere seconds.

“yes, you really do need to work harder” by Jordan Whitfield on Unsplash

Hard work? We go to the vending machine over in the corner and buy it the premade something. 

Prepackaged stuff. Ready to eat. Immediately consumed. Is this what we want? Of course we do! We are consumers. We are always trying to find a hack, we try to find a shortcut. We want our hard work to be easy.

6 Minute Abs!

Get rich quick!

Whiter teeth in just a few days!

This is your hack to hard work

.

Hard work is only hard the first time you do it.

Seriously. That’s it.

Nothing else. It is not magical. It is not complex. It is just hard. We recognize that doing it the first time is hard, and after that, it is no longer hard. Wait, what?

The first time you do something, it is physically and/or mentally exhausting. Unfortunately, that is the description of hard work. But now you have learned it-what hard work entails. You cannot unlearn it. Your body now understands the motions, the biomechanics required.

Your brain has made the synapses fire and the new connections are made. You are now able to understand the necessary level of effort to expend, the complexity of the motions and mechanics to do it a second time. It is easier to do it the second time because you are smarter than you were the first time.

“blowing up a balloon” photo by Patricia Prudente on Unsplash

It is the flexibility of the balloon. To expand the balloon for the first time is really hard. Puffing out your cheeks, trying to push the air in from your breath, it is tough! Yet, after you have successfully expanded the balloon, then let the air out and do it a second time or third time, it gets easier and easier each time. That hard work is no longer that hard.

Look, I am probably the laziest guy you will ever meet. I will drag my feet, delay to the last second when I have hard work in front of me. Once I accept my fate, I will try to strategize the hard work. I will try to solve the problem of the hard work. I will try to systematize, automate, or standardize any of that work that I am doing. I try to be smart with the hard work.

Why?

So when I am required to do it a second time or third time, it is much easier. I do not want to duplicate the original struggle that I had the first time around. Unfortunately, in order to accomplish that future easier effort, it requires a lot of smart planning and hard work up front. Smart. Hard. Work.

Hard work sucks. It is difficult. It is something that we all run from. Think of the last bit of hard work you did. Was it digging a ditch, was it your latest box workout at your local CrossFit? Was it the altMBA? Was it writing your first blog post (or your fiftieth) and posting it? Hard work is tiring. It is a challenge. It requires a level of effort that you are not used to expending, in order to accomplish that particular task. So what do you do? Do you quit? I certainly hope not.

“training” photo by louis tricot on Unsplash

But you know what? In order to run a marathon, you have to train a lot. You have to slog through hundreds of miles to train for a marathon. Be smart. Break up those increased levels of effort into smaller, more manageable chunks of work, of less, more manageable effort. By breaking those tasks down into smaller, more manageable tasks and actions allows us to work our way through that hard work. If you take the time to break down that hard work into those smaller chunks and have the discipline to finish each of those particular tasks, the hard work will not really be that hard!

Discipline? Wait, I thought I only needed to do hard work? er, smart, hard work. Now I need discipline too?

Certainly, the biggest challenge with hard work is discipline. Having the ability to wake up and do the same thing every day. To finish digging that ditch. To finish climbing the mountain. To keep showing up. Just showing up is hard. It is a bit of a Jedi mind trick, you have to use the fear of hard work as an extrinsic motivational tool to urge you to complete the work as in front of you. For instance, you are putting in more effort right now, reading this blog is an extended effort. You are putting in the hard work to understand what it takes to be better and stronger than the next person.

Try to imagine where we would be as a people and society if we did not do the hard work.

Be smart.

Work hard.

Be disciplined.

Oh, and be kind while you are at it too!

Go forth and be brilliant.