There is no Hard Work in Life.

Been awhile since I have written something – owing to a lot of other works catching up: Engagement, planning for my wedding, renovating my house, making me feel if this is something I am really up to. The ‘if’ here refers to the challenges; well that makes me quickly ponder if these are even challenges or if I am feeling it so.

There is a next question which is arising in my mind: if I am not adapting enough to the situations and if latently I am a person who gives up the moment I get to a stage where I am asked to stretch and work? I kept pondering over this thought for a while.

Many of us would have got lazy at some point in our lives, and we would have heard the term “hard work”

While I began pondering over the thought if I am being ‘competent’ enough to face the challenges and then landing up with a self-doubt, somewhere in between I have realized something very important.

Growing up in the Indian Society, we are subject to a lot of comparison; given the fact that we grow up in an education system which follows a rank system showcasing a 8 year old kid to be differentiated on the basis of marks and to be stated as an ‘intelligent’ and an ‘outstanding’ student, one must be a class topper – for example sake, let’s consider the above situation. The child begins working towards a goal or an end point which someone else has defined as the “best fit” while missing out on the opportunity to go beyond, over time losing the ability to look ‘beyond’. Now as the kid grows up, the mentality to compare with the peer sets in. Let’s assume 5 children from the same class who grew up fighting amongst themselves over who got that extra 1 mark to get the first rank, starts living their own life but end up comparing theirs with the other person’s life.

They forget that what they see in other’s life is what the other has chosen to show, but all these five are unhappy looking at each other and predominantly if I had to take a genuine and an honest survey – this will prove to be true in over 80% of the cases.

Why does this happen?

I have somehow come to a point where I genuinely believe now that there has been over stressing on “hard work” as a virtue while that stressing must have been on “being focused”.

It has definitely taken time for me to realize that there is nothing called as a “hard work”, all that matters at the end of the day is, our aspirations and the efforts needed to be successful. It is as simple as 

that.

If I am a salesperson and aspiring to bring in revenue of over a Million to my company, I will have to sit and make calls and that is not “hard work” but it is simply the work that I am supposed to be doing to deliver and get down successful to my aspiration. If I aspire to complete/ win a full marathon, then I have to do as many miles during my training phase and repeatedly do it over a few weeks, and I cannot complain about it.

As simple as: What I want vs. my willingness towards completing that journey successfully. In a much simpler term, If I aspire now to walk 10miles across the city, and If I assume that I am working hard to achieve it, then I am plain wrong.

Either what you aspire for is wrong, or you are not working towards it. There is no space for branding your work as “hard work” because you want to make it sound ‘cool’.

I remember during a product management class during my B-School days, we were being taught about the five product levels. It starts from Core benefits, basic product, expected product, augmented product and future potential product.

Let’s look at it from the point of view of a customer, who walks in to buy an air conditioner. Air cooling is the core benefit that he/she looks for and everything else around it sits under each of the above mentioned levels of the product category. Now, why I have brought this us up here is – once at the time of transition from windows to split ACs, companies began introducing remote control as an augmented product, and overtime it became an “expected product” and this is the reality. Just because they have done something new, they cannot stay put on the same for a longer time.

Very similarly if you have done something great today, and if you are aspiring to repeat it tomorrow: you are only working towards it and not “hard working”.

I somewhere perceive that goal setting is a bigger challenge and hence majority of the people out there live their life by chance and not by choice; having said that and also about growing up with a mentality of peer comparison, people perceive that they work hard and despite happening social lives, hefty paying job, happening holidays, they are unhappy – for the simple reason their friend/ neighbor is “more happy”.

“Sharma – ji ka beta” is replaced by so- called happy neighbors and friends, and hence people are losing interest in their lives, develop a self-pity instead of ‘working’ towards their own goal.

High time we replace “hard work” with “Goal setting” & ‘determination’. To chase down your dreams, you have to believe in yourself and have the courage to go the distance, determination to make it big and the dedication to single-mindedly focus on the goal and the drive within to improve, the persistence to work and willingness to sacrifice little momentarily pleasures. This is the formula and if you want to term it as ‘hard’ work, then think again – please! This is the ‘work’ you need to do to get what you aspire for.

Life is not that hard, it is a simple equation. If you want it, go get it and don’t call it as hard. If you feel it is hard, then don’t aspire for it, because you are not 100% committed towards it.

It is all about not giving up.

Remember: giving up without completing the journey, is as good as not starting at all. You have plainly wasted a lot of time; so the next time if someone tells you to work hard – then be rest assured that you are actually not ‘working’ at all towards your aspiration or as towards what’s expected from you.

There is no Hard Work in life, just Work!