Hard Work
You know when you have a day that is laborious and tedious? When your muscles and your brain feel like they just worked out? I’m not talking about just exercising for an hour but completing a task that took a big portion of your day or days. This can be building something, creating something, repairing something. What have you. Exercise yes requires hard work, but for this blog entry it’s not what we are discussing.
Hard work is when you take grit and just push through to finish a task. At the end of all the hard work you have a sense of accomplishment and achievement. It’s fulfilling work, and it leaves you exhausted. I love this kind of work. For me I feel this most when I am fixing or building things. When I get to engage my mind fully in figuring something out and also be able to use my hands. Well hot diggity, I get lost in it. As much as you might be thinking well hey, massage is perfect for you, think again. I don’t get this feeling a lot. Sure I’m working hard and using my hands to fix something, but it’s automatic work. My hands just do what is intuitive for me, so that means I don’t usually think about the problem. I just do. Massage brings me joy because I help people, but it’s not as fulfilling in the sense of accomplishment.
What kind of person are you when it comes to work? For me I am a work horse. I love working for hours on end. For instance when my father asked me to do a roofing gig where we cleaned off the roof, gutters, patches, I just kept going. I didn’t stop until one part of the task was done and only because I was taking a break to think about the next step and to stay hydrated. My father looked at me and was like I brought your cousins to help me with this same task and they needed me to keep yelling at them, and they couldn’t focus. You got that done faster and it looks way better. I don’t say this to brag, but to get to my point. I work hard and fast, it’s not because I need to get it completed as soon as possible. It’s because I dive in full heartedly. The intoxication I feel by it leaves me wanting to do it with gusto. Now some people are leisurely at work, where they take their time and space it out. That’s cool, whatever your pace, it’s okay. I want you to think about how you go about a task. Are you fast? Slow? Do you do it methodically or sloppy? Do you need guidance or are you more of a leader? Any of these ways are okay to be, there are no right answers. Me I’m fast and a leader, but with certain tasks I don’t read the instructions right all the time because I’m going at warp speed. Sometimes this makes it sloppy, and that usually means I will have to go back in steps to redo the things I have done. That’s how I work, and I’m sure you’re like well slow down then. Well I have tried, it’s not how my brain works. I think fast and if I have to redo something then I have to redo it.
Today I worked outside starting a garden. Well just my herbs for now. I had to start from scratch to find a plot of land and dig out the weeds and such. It took me over an hour to do for a small piece because of how many rocks and weeds there were. But after I planted all the herbs I felt like I had accomplished something for the day. It also brought up more momentum because I was actively engaging my mind and my body into the task. When I came inside I began to write. When you complete something you worked hard on you gain a sense of pride and a high. That high is momentum to push you to the next thing, at least thats what it does for me. Having as much energy as I do, some days I haven’t pushed myself to work hard enough. Those are the days I usually dwell and get anxiety or depression. A lack of work creates a lack of fulfillment and when that happens you usually look outside yourself to what others have or have done.
So today I want you to find something that will be hard work. Maybe it’s finishing crocheting a scarf you put off. Or maybe it’s going outside to do yard work. Maybe you have to build a bookcase for all your books, you brainiac. Whatever the task I want you to just keep at it. Focus on it. Really put your time into it and love it. When you love what you do it becomes doubly enjoyable. I challenge you to figure out how you work. Are you leisurely taking breaks and pacing yourself? Are you a fast cheetah racing to the end? Allow yourself to be fulfilled by the task, and enjoy the hard work you put into it. It will help you sleep better, feel more motivated and even build confidence. So what do you say?
Get to it and work hard!!!