It is hard to fail, but it is
worse never to have tried to succeed. By Theodore Roosevelt.
Recently a good friend of mine
Suparna lost in her offer to be promoted for a Manager’s position. Last month
an opportunity for me to bid for a campaign in a major company fell
through. Also Last month I had a proposal rejected by a sponsor and everyday
folks around the world sense the sting of frustration when things don’t work
out as expected. Too often though
when our hard work fails to produce what we have put our effort for, we focus
on the failure. People call it “waste of their effort” implying that
because they did not accomplish the objective they set out toward—whether it be
the business deal they had worked so hard to bring home or the job promotion
that was given to someone else despite their hours of overtime—that their
effort was of no value.
But that is not true. There is
a saying Nobody cares how much you know, until they know how much you care.
You do yourself a disservice when you approach hard work
begrudgingly. There is little in life more rewarding than working hard at work
worth doing, regardless of whether you always produce the result you want.
Working hard toward a goal or vision that inspires us,
regardless of the outcome, always holds intrinsic value. What matters far more
than what we get from our hard work and effort, is who we get to become because
of it. It is only human to feel disappointment when we don’t achieve something
we’ve worked hard toward. But our hard work and effort is never
wasted. It truly is one of life’s deep joys to “work hard at work worth doing.”
And working hard toward something that fills you with purpose and passion
is always work worth doing— whether it be fulfilling a long held dream,
building a business that fulfills an unmet need or, closer to home,
writing a book to help people be more courageous in their working lives.
Today the word “work” has come to mean something to be avoided as
much as possible for many people who approach hard work begrudgingly. But
there’s value in work. Not just for the money you can earn, but from the person
you get to become through it. Hard work draws out talents and capacities that
may otherwise have lain dormant.
I don’t know what challenges you face right now. But I will bet
that in order to meet them successfully it will require you to do some hard
work. Work isn’t always “fun”. Sometimes it can be a grind. But that does
not diminish its intrinsic value.
So let me ask you, where is your life calling on you to work
harder at work worth doing? Whether it’s the inner work of transforming the way
in you’re living your life, or the outer “roll up your sleeves and set your
alarm early” work, always keep forefront of mind, that nothing worth doing has
ever been done without good old fashioned hard work.
