Hard work.

Do you say that you work hard?  Or do you actually work hard?

I have found more and more students I encounter as well as other adults are incredibly unaware of how hard they are actually working.  Unfortunately, it seems we have created this culture where everybody feels they deserve the moon and that they have worked hard enough for it.   When in reality, that may not be the case.

This is not a post to demean anybody, but to perhaps help you take a look at your work ethic.  Are you truly “giving your all”?  Are you doing your best?  I know many people are perhaps in a position that is not what they truly want to do yet or maybe they just plain do not enjoy their job at all.  What I always tell my Student Ambassadors when they start making excuses to miss work or slack off is…  every part of your life is a stepping stone to the next chapter.  If you don’t work hard and prove yourself NOW…no matter what job you are in, once you finally get to that next chapter you either won’t be ready… or someone will look you right over.  Why?  Because someone else is always going to be working harder than you.  Someone else who maybe hates their job just as much as you do, or has more going on in their life WON’T make excuses…and that is the person who will get to their dreams and goals faster.

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One of the best pieces of advice I received in my first year out of college was “the key to success is simple…show up early, stay late, always say yes and dress to impress.”  Such simple advice, yet very powerful.    In my first few years as a “working girl”, I realized the importance of always stepping up to the plate, of always being the first to help another coworker and of saying yes to projects that I had no clue how to even start.  I could tell those things were paying off quickly.  That I was making a good impression.  I still have much to learn,  but I am getting there.

I become very frustrated when I hear others complain about not being where they want to be in their career or where they “deserve” to be in general.  But yet those same people will continue to show up late, leave early, Facebook/browse the internet all day and complain of “boredom” at work.  Coincidence?  I think not.

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Ironically, these will also be the same folk who will quickly judge others around them or the first to boast to the world when they worked a 15 hour day.  Hard workers and successful people work long days all the time, the difference is they are not telling you about it.  They just do it.

Am I saying that you should work hard enough so that you never see your family or have a personal life?  Of course not.  But you cannot expect to get to where you want to be by just coasting.  You have to put in the work.   Why NOT do your best?

Maybe you are surrounded by people who consistently don’t work hard and it drives you mad.  Don’t let it.  Put your nose to the grindstone.  Hard work always wins out in the end.  Every time.  You will get to where you need to be if you just keep at it.

Stay blessed in the mess 🙂

 

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