Work Hard

stuffed dilbert toyWorking hard is easy if you like your job, because if you love what you do then it won’t feel like work. But even if you’re working just to pay the bills, work hard anyway.

Work is good for your soul. The right type of work makes life meaningful, and gives you a reason to wake up every morning raring to start your day. The problem is that many people are doing work that is wrong for them, that they don’t enjoy but do anyway just for the money. If you work only for money, you won’t be happy.

photo credit: osde8info

1. Whistle while you work

Learn to enjoy your work, even if it’s not what you really want to do. Perhaps especially if it’s not what you really want to do. When you train yourself to find the good in anything that you do, more good will come your way. There’s a kharma in the universe which ensures that to those who manage what they are given well, more will be given. The bible says so too, in case you are religious.

Being positive and cheerful has nothing to do with what you actually do for a living. It’s a decision to have a certain attitude, that’s all. I have met cheery bus drivers who make a passenger’s day, and glum bankers who make you wonder why you’re giving them your money; cleaners who delight in keeping the park clean and beautiful for visitors, and managers from hell who make every visitor to their office feel small and stupid. It’s not the title you hold, it’s the you inside that counts.

2. Give 100%

Enjoying your work doesn’t mean taking ten coffee breaks a day and hanging out in the pantry gossiping. I used to do that too, and it was enjoyable then only because I was young and immature and didn’t realise that this was not the kind of person I want to be. If you’re going through that phase now, I’m not being critical of you. I’m just saying that there is a better way to spend your time.

Whatever time you spend at the office is paid for by your employer. So give to Caesar what is due to Caesar. If you wouldn’t pay yourself for the work you did today, then why should anyone else? If your work is not worth paying for, you are committing career suicide. If you’re self-employed, you’ll know first-hand what I mean. You get paid when you create value for someone willing to pay for that value. If you don’t provide value, you’ll be out of business pretty quickly.

Give it all you’ve got, no matter what you do. This is a well-known secret of success.

3. Develop your skills

Working hard includes working hard on yourself. Develop your skills and increase your competence by reading self-improvement books, attending relevant courses, and building your character. In my opinion, character is the most important to develop. Without character, skills and experience will be put to questionable uses. Lack of character has caused CEOs and CFOs their careers and reputations because they used their cleverness to profit themselves deceitfully.

If you think you’ve found your career niche, then you need to improve your skills so that you can remain in this career for the long term, and gain a reputation as one of the best in your field. If you are thinking of changing careers, then you need to develop even more skills – those that serve you now so that you have a base from which to leap off, and those that you will need in your next job or business.

Working on yourself has intangible rewards such as self-esteem, job satisfaction, and the respect of others. Eventually your market value will increase and so will your remuneration.

4. Make a difference

If you’re going to spend eight to ten hours a day working, for fifty weeks a year, for forty years of your life, for goodness sake make it count. You don’t have to change the world. Just make one customer happy each day. Help ease a colleague’s burden today. Take a load off your boss’s shoulders by being responsible and accountable. Bring gladness to a subordinate by being a compassionate boss.

If you just touch one person a day with your work, you will have brought sunshine into the lives of thousands of people in the course of your career. If that doesn’t give meaning to work, I don’t know what does.

5. Be open to opportunity

When you’ve done all the above – when you’re a cheerful, positive, competent worker who gives 100% all the time and whom people love being around, opportunities will come into your life even if you don’t go looking for them. Ex-bosses and colleagues will start asking you to join their new companies or businesses, headhunters will call you, people you don’t even know may contact you.

Even if you are not in that kind of demand, working hard at your job, skills and yourself will stand you in much better stead if you decide to hunt down other opportunities on your own. You’ll have higher chances of success when you apply for the next job or start your own business.

One of life’s lovely ironies is that when you work hard, work becomes less hard!

This is Part 5 of the series:

Think Deeply
Speak Gently
Love Much
Laugh A Lot
Work Hard
Give Freely
Be Kind



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Posted by Daphne | August 31, 2008 | in Work Hard


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One Response to “Work Hard”

  1. Yang
    May 6th, 2009 @ 8:01 pm

    Thank you for sharing this. I have just started to read your blog. I’m going to read some more!

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  • Comments by Readers

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  • Beaulotus: Hi Daphne, it’s precisely that – that they didn’t have anything better to do with their time and lives. Those few mums...
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  • Lana-{Daring Clarity}: Those were great points Daphne, thank you. And I so loved how you started that the reason you “keep blogging is that...
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  • Hilary: Hi Daphne .. good points .. adopt a hero – yourself – ensure you smile, be kind, be open, be friendly .. Draw the boundaries is...
  • J.D. Meier: Beautiful distillations … heroes, boundaries, and buddies are the way to go. It takes less energy to be yourself than be somebody...
  • Lance: Hi Daphne, Number 4 is an important one for me. It’s so easy for other people’s attitudes to filter over into our own –...
  • Mazhar Nawaz: Dear Daphne enjoyed reading every word. I appreciate your honest views on Live Like You’ll Die Tomorrow.
  • Walter: Yes, I believe with what you have written here. In fact, I’m applying most of them into my life. There are lot of ways to be happy,...
  • Lindsey Petersen: I am a die hard optimist who leads a happy life even when I should be sad…an anomaly, I guess! Lindsey Petersen...
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  • James Gray: When you say that good and bad aren’t “out there,” it isn’t clear what that means. I don’t know if anyone...
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