A to Z of Success

Hard Working

There is a difference between hard work and working hard.

Hard work implies to me that the task in hand will take some effort and is burdensome to achieve the desired result; i.e. it was a lot of hard work. I feel that hard work implies a lot of sweat and tears.

Working hard on the other hand implies to me that there is focused effort and a concentrated aim that will get results. To me it is synonymous with determination, diligence, honesty, and responsibility.

Personally I prefer to work hard than to do hard work.

Being successful entails a lot of working hard and hopefully not too much hard work. You will need a lot of focused energy and it will take some time to achieve. There are a lot of quotes about the road to success, but most of them imply good motivation and honest ethics and talk about the importance of working hard.

Your working hard should include these ethics. Nothing good will long term come of anything based on something bad. You may make money, but looking over your shoulder all the time waiting for the authorities to arrive does have its issues which you may not like.

In actual fact I think working hard should actually be referred to as working smart. Working smart” is doing the same task by making and implementing a plan–including steps that may be an innovation in procedure, improving efficiency and reducing costs to perform the task.

People who are devoted to hard work generally don’t get as much done as someone who is working smart (working hard). Smart working involves planning, efficiency and value for time.

Planning the tasks is the key to smart working. If you do not have a plan you can spend all day achieving nothing as there is nothing to aim for. The worker becomes enslaved by the task rather than accomplishing the plan.