Countless and countless…I don’t know how many but more than enough times have I been told in my life to “never take the easy option in life,” “things only come with hard work and dedication,” and last but not least my favorite one of all: “nothing worthwhile is ever easy.“
Now, this may sound like pretty solid and generally good advice—but it actually isn’t always the best advice.
The Undeniable Truth About Hard Work That No One Is Telling You
Hard Work Doesn’t Magically Translate Into Success
Unfortunately, this philosophy very rarely translates into real life success. It’s a nice idea, I give you that, but it’s a pernicious assumption that because something is difficult for you it must mean you’re heading in the right direction. A lot of people get fooled and even get a sort of masochistic kick out of getting things done the hard way.
But really, if you’re honest, wouldn’t you rather obtain the things you so-desired the easy way? It’s a rhetorical question of course but nonetheless an important one to answer to truthfully I think.
Your mind might say that with hard work comes a better appreciation of what you have or manage to acquire, but I’m afraid your heart and gut might think very much otherwise.
Both of those opinions, while completely opposite to each other, are valid in their own right but to which one would you rather listen to?
Perhaps a couple of individuals will consider the former safer and the most likely to deliver results, while another group of people might think that what you should always do is follow your instincts.
What tends to happen, though, is a blind belief in the harder-I-work-the faster-I’ll-get-results kind of mentality.
Why Isn’t My Hard Work Paying-Off?
And then you get frustrated. And then you think of quitting, because you can’t understand why things aren’t going your way since you’ve been working so hard.
You’re supposed to get the reward, right? I’ve seen it in all the movies, where the guy has it extremely hard at the beginning but turns it around, wins at the end, and finishes with a typical Hollywood statement: “I’ve finally made it!”
What we tend to forget, though, is that it’s just a movie; it’s not actually real life. In no way, shape or form, is it representative of what happens in the real world—there are exceptions of course like in everything else but—most of the time it just won’t happen that way.
“Workaholics aren’t heroes. They don’t save the day; they use it up. The real hero is already home…because she figured out a faster a way to get things done.” – Jason Friend & David Heinemeier Hansson
Don’t get it twisted now I’m not saying you can’t make even your wildest dreams become a reality. I’m a believer in the human spirit just like you are. I believe in miracles. I believe that the impossible is possible, yes to all of that. But you need to have that magic at your disposal first, and understand that it’s not by doing the exact same thing over and over again that you’re going to be able to see the light at the end of the tunnel.
School teaches us exactly the opposite of what really works unfortunately. As a matter of fact, it teaches us precisely not to confide and trust in our gut-instincts. It convinces us that we’re weak if we feel boredom in class. It persuades us that frustration is a disease that should be dealt with a tough attitude towards life—in effect we learn a slave’s mentality.
Re-baptize Your Worst Defects As Your Best Qualities
The defects that we were taught were bad in our childhood are actually not defects at all. It’s all a big, fat, and ugly lie to keep us in check.
And contrary to popular perception, frustration and boredom are the greatest qualities you could possibly have (you heard me right), because they literally tell you when something’s not working right anymore. They, literally, make your life so unbearable that you have no choice but to quit and do something else. See it as a guide to a better life.
“It’s very important to take risks. I think that research is very important, but in the end you have to work from your instinct and feeling and take those risks and be fearless. “ – Anna Wintour
They speak to you in a language that is of the body called your sensations and emotions (I’m sure you’ve heard of them) and as clearly and gently as they possibly could, come knocking on the door of your consciousness and let you know that something just needs to be changed. “Why the hell do you keep on doing the same thing when it’s obviously not going anywhere?” That’s what it’s telling you.
The Body Is Wiser Than The Intelect
Understand that having a proper education is vital but realize also that having a proper education doesn’t make you any smarter than you were before, no matter the amount you have learned or memorized. Information is empty without the experience to back it up.
Only through the senses do we get a true feeling of what life really means, and through them only does knowledge become real understanding, with the heart involved the body becomes fully alive and vital, the eyes sparkle, the voice resonates and the organism vibrates with all its might; yet something so simple cannot be grasped by the sophisticated intellect, and even less understood, for it is a world it could not even fathom to exist.
Eureka-moments are only lived when life gets to a particular point in time where everything seems to just flow naturally like a swift breeze caressing a tree into a melodious tune, massaging its way through the body and bending it to its soft and delicate will.
Until you get to that point, you’ll have to work extra-hard all of your life to get to the essence of things. Everything will seem like a struggle. Everything will seem like a fight for survival because you still haven’t learned to look…to look for the deeper meaning that binds all things into a beautiful puzzle, a marvelous picture, with the value of enlightening your senses to the truth: that life is simple if we want it to be and that its apparent complexity is only there to confuse the un-initiated and the abstract of mind, with clever tricks and slight-of-hand deflections that make you go one way while it goes the other—and that is how, my friend, the simplicity of life has alluded you once more.
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