Learn To Fall In Love With Hard Work Without The Excuses

 

It’s only for a season

 

I believe most people 50 years or younger have forgotten what true hard work is. Hard work where by you get up at an ungodly hour, travel a ridiculous length of time to a site with little or no amenities, those of you who’ve been there can relate to what I’m saying.

Then there’s the none stop production line of things today and every time you think you’ve finished there comes along some more work to keep you busy. You end the day only to travel that same ridiculous journey back home where you’re physically, emotionally and mentally tired but you can’t crash out because you have to eat, freshen up and prepare for the next day, you repeat this six days a week for three months.

In the beginning it’s easy, hard work is easy in the beginning, it’s a challenge you’re showing people how strong, tough and capable you are, it’s that half-way point that kills people. It’s not the boulder it’s the pebbles, the boulder is the big opportunity to show people and yourself what you’re capable of, the pebble is that moment half way through a hard job where you start thinking stuff like I’m better than this, I should get paid more than this, I can’t take that job I have a degree in something and you start to tear down the opportunities in front of you instead of learning about leadership.

Leadership says it’s not you live in my kingdom therefore I’m in charge of you, leadership says you live in my kingdom therefore it’s my job to serve you. People who want to be leaders in companies don’t realise that you have to start with the mind-set that if I’m going to  get under this company I have to be able to put everything on my shoulders and work every aspect of this to know that I can.

Not that you have to stay there but to know that you can provide the opportunities to step up and deliver at a moment’s notice. I look back at hard work and half way through I started to not love it anymore and my question became not only how you make it through hard work but how you fall in love with hard work.

You see if you listen to anyone who’s made it, according to all these people who’ve done incredible things whether it be your Oprah Winfrey’s or your Nelson Mandela’s they are going to tell you it’s hard work along the way, so how do you fall in love with hard work.

1.You have to learn how to shift your perception; how you view what it is you’re doing.

2. You have to shift your procedure, how you physically go about every day to make it something exciting and fun that you can be passionate about it.

I did both and all of a sudden this became the greatest job and opportunity on earth. I realised that most people in unemployed situations would kill for an opportunity like this one, to give them the opportunity to provide for their family or community. So fall in love with it, step up and deliver.

From there I said to myself what else do I have to learn and I started to look around society and realised that so many people had so much but didn’t appreciate hardly any of it. So I said how do I appreciate having very little but begin to love my life.

I just want to share a story I heard with you, it’s about a little old man in Africa who would daily sweep the path from a hospital doorway all the way to the road side and then return sweeping his way back to the doorway. This he would do every single morning, he was observed by a visiting doctor and 30 days in no longer able to contain his curiosity asked via a translator “Why do you do what you do”?

The answer came back because “I’m supposed to”! Not satisfied with this response the doctor asked again in a louder voice “Why do you do that”?  This time the old man gestured with a smile and animated body language. The doctor responded “I don’t know what he said but that’s what I’m looking for the joy the excitement the passion behind it”. What was that?

The old man responded “The reason I do what I do is every human being whether it be small person about to enter this world or a sick or elderly person about to leave this world deserves a clear path to do so.

The doctor was shocked because he had met someone who did something so simple that had such depth of meaning behind it, a man who was living his passion and changing the world in his own way simply by sweeping leaves.

Re-read the above replacing Hard Work with Dedication

It’s your Attitude not your Aptitude that determines your Altitude.