I’m torn on the subject of hard work. There is a part of me that likes hard work. I like making a difference and seeing the things that I have accomplished. I like working hard and doing the little extra to do things well. But, on the other hand, hard work hurts and is very tiring. I like to just sit and relax. It is generally easier to sit and talk about what I am going to do than it is to actually do it.
I like having a mentor. Someone who I can sit with and will be honest with me and speak into my life. I still remember many years ago, sitting with one my mentors on a Sunday night as we did regularly. I had fallen short of some goals that I had set and he asked me about what was going on. I said I was busy doing the work, but I just wasn’t getting the results. So he began to dig a little deeper. “What were you doing?”
“Well, I um….” was about the best response I could come up with. I was busy at working toward these goals. At least I thought I was. But when I pulled out my calendar and talked through the week, I was really just busy being busy. I talked about and thought about what I needed to do so much, that I truly thought I had been busing working. But I didn’t actually spend much time doing what I needed to do. This is something that I still struggle with today. Being busy being busy instead of being busy being productive. I think about things to the point that the reality is nothing at all like what is in my head. I talk about things a lot. I talk about projects a lot and how important they are and what it is going to take to get the project done, but I sometimes don’t actually do the things it takes to get it done. I have a long list of unfinished projects, but I will say it is not nearly as long as it was a year ago.
This is something I have been working on a lot over the last year. As I was reading through Proverbs last month, I began to notice how much it talks about this. The one verse that caught my attention the most was:
All hard work brings a profit,
but mere talk leads only to poverty.
Proverbs 14: 23
This can easily be applied to any part of my life, not just business. If I want to be healthy, I can either talk about it or I can do something about it. Trying all the latest diets and shortcuts isn’t going to get it done, either. The only way to get healthy is to work hard. If my kids want to be successful in their sport, it will take heard work. If I want to accomplish the goals in my life, it is going to take hard work. Writing them down on a piece of paper (or in my case a spreadsheet because I like lists and spreadsheets) isn’t going to get me to the goal… unless, of course, the goal was to write down my goals. It is good to have goals and it is good to have them written down, but the only way to achieve those goals is to do the work.
As I look around, I see a huge difference between the successful people and the average people in any endeavor. The successful people work hard toward the goals they have set. The average people talk about setting goals. And once they are set, they talk about what it will take to reach those goals and if it is worth giving up my free time and my TV shows to reach those goals. There is generally very little actual work being done. I have a bookmark that I got on a trip to Disney World several years ago. it is a quote from Walt Disney.
The way to get started
is to quit talking
and start doing.
It is time to work hard toward those goals. It is time to quit talking and put some action toward my goals. I look forward to hearing what some of your goals might be and what you are doing for the next six and a half days?
