HARD WORK, SMART WORK AND BEING EASY ON YOURSELF
Look at the artists. How meticulously they doodle each flower and each dot to create beautiful, enchanted and picturesque worlds. Look at the Bollywood superstars. How they dedicate themselves to immersing into their characters by working day and night. Talk about programmers, who spend night after night coding everything from awesome video games to the mechanisms of our microwaves. Look at writers, who rework and rework their pieces until they read perfect. There, literally, is no substitute for hard work.
On the flip side, when we think about smart work, smart work is actually a mutual of hard work, and not an alternative. Smartness is a skill we can use to provide boundary to our hard work. Smart work is something that is required in managing daily to-dos and juggling multiple projects. But it is not exclusive or a substitute of hard work. Smart work doesn’t mean going lazy on the details of our work. Smart work is required in the process of managing the hard work the right way so we don’t get burned out. But hard work is something that has no shortcuts. It is true that some jobs do require more thinking than more doing, but most jobs, especially the creative ones, require the quality of hard work. Mostly, what needs to be done, needs to be done. And it’s always good for us if we give our best in whatever we work we do. Hard work refines our character from the inside out; it polishes our penchants and prepares us to share our innermost gifts in the best possible way.
However, at the same time, hardwork doesn’t have to be too effortful. it can be effortless like nature. Lao Tzu said that, "Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished." Hard work doesn’t mean being anxious or stressed or overwhelmed. Put a pinch of smartness into it, and you’ll find that physical exhaustion actually feels good if it ends in joy. And do remember to put love in everything you do. So much so that hard work doesn’t feel hard at all.
But by any means hardwork doesn’t mean being hard on yourself. Have a good night’s sleep. Eat good food. Relax. Enjoy and have leisure time. And master the art of smart work the way working moms do. Work hard, but manage it the smart way. You can only work hard if your body and mind are functioning at their greatest capacity, and they work at their greatest capacity when you are absolutely easy on yourself.
Working
hard is not an oldtimer, orthodox concept or something that needs to be
changed. One doesn’t need to choose between hard work and smart work. Both of
these are required for the proper functioning of an individual’s routine. Working
hard and managing smart is one of the best possible ways to accomplish your daily
tasks.
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