Easy Does It
Sometimes, no matter how gifted you are, only working hard will get you what you want. Talented people don’t learn to work hard when accustomed to effortless success.
A gifted person uses few mental resources to accomplish the same task that the average person finds difficult. Because gifted people exert less effort, they can focus longer. Ultimately, they have better outcomes than the average person.
Academic success is one way to demonstrate how smart you are. Yet, schooling is the only area of intelligence people are encouraged to pursue, even if they aren’t good at it.
Outside of education, people are encouraged to pursue only what they are good at. People often search for their natural talents. Psychologist Howard Gardner’s theory of intelligence proposes eight areas of giftedness and asserts that everyone is gifted in at least one.
While using our gifts is important, we shouldn’t forget to pursue things that aren’t easy. When we stick to what we are good at, our experiences are limited and may even limit how far our gifts take us.
Hard Work or Hardly Working
Five years ago, I attended a business leadership course. The strategy was to dig deep into participants’ psyches and show us how we get in our own way. It was an easy week since I knew most of what they taught. But, on the last day, a consultant delivered me a big blow.
She pointed out how I had spent most of my time doing the things I was good at and too little time doing the things I wasn’t good at. She pointed out that I was failing in my business approach. She was right, but I had never considered it. I worked long hours creating content. But, the truth is that creating content comes easy for me. It’s not hard work at all because I love doing it.
I ignored the effort required to build support for my business. I needed to improve at asking for help and building business relationships in general. I assumed these things were happening when they weren’t. I thought I was working hard at everything when I was only working long at one thing.
Even though asking for help would take less time than I spent creating content weekly, I avoided contact with people. I was accustomed to working alone and unsure how to invite others into my dreams. I had to get a mentor to help me. I also had to do some healing so that rejection didn’t emotionally paralyze me.
Blaming our failure on unfair systems is too easy. Changing these systems require our success. If things aren’t working out, we must work the hard stuff. Talent is a small part of the formula for success. Success also requires people skills, thick skin for rejection, being open to feedback, and constantly updating your information and approach.
Being in business is an art to be mastered, beyond education and talent. If you are lacking in any business area, including personal development, you must ask for help and pay for it if necessary. Work on your craft, but work hard on the business part too.
When Hard is too Easy
I’ve noticed that I’m not the only one who doesn’t work hard. Show me a person who is failing, and I will show you who needs to work harder at the right stuff.
People convince themselves they are working hard. But we do more of what we like and what comes naturally. We tend not to work hard on the hard parts.
I attended Cornell University after high school, under-prepared for the rigor. However, I graduated in four years, leaving many brilliant peers behind. Many students breezed through the first year because they had been exposed to much of the course material. So, little studying was required. When they enrolled in courses that required extreme discipline, they fumbled.
They couldn’t pull themselves away from relationships or parties to focus. They couldn’t get over the shock of earning a C. Gone were their accolades for being the smartest in the class. They didn’t adapt to being regular and having to work hard. Consequently, they fell behind.
I now teach at the university level and see a similar pattern among students. The students that challenge my grading the most are the A-students. Many bright students struggle in my class because my assignments are more challenging than some professors.
Instead of asking for help to become better learners, struggling students beckon me to adjust my syllabus. They insist on more clarity when they are required to analyze. They want less required reading, fewer exams, and more time to complete assignments.
They assume something needs to be fixed with my course if they cannot earn an A. They don’t come to office hours, visit the study center, or write several drafts of their paper because those measures were never part of their success.
They believe help is for C students rather than A students. Using academic resources would challenge their self-image as intelligent people. So, instead, they challenge me. That doesn’t get them the grade they seek.
People may change relationships so often because changing themselves is too difficult. We don’t do the hard stuff that needs to be done to build healthy relationships. We work hard at the easy stuff, such as serial dating.
Hard Workers Succeed
I’ve had my share of potential clients tell me they don’t want to do the work of healing. They assume it will require change that they aren’t ready to make. They don’t want to struggle to pay for the service either. But, if healing were easy, everyone would do it.
Doing more of what doesn’t work will not give you better results. Working smart requires an investment in finding out how to succeed at your specific goal, not working hard at the easy part.
When hard workers do not get the results they want, the first question they ask is, “What am I not understanding?” “What can I see differently?” They see themselves as the problem before they look outside of themselves.
Evaluating yourself isn’t self-criticism. It’s self-responsibility — the willingness to change the one thing you can. If we aren’t willing to change to meet our goals, why should anyone else change for us? Changing ourselves is the path of least resistance.
If you only look to evaluate people, systems, or things, you will never learn how to work hard. You must see yourself as a problem solver and know that problem-solving begins within.
Know how your efforts impact your goal and work directly toward it. Don’t just work hard to feel like you are working hard. You must work hard at the right stuff.
If you have been working hard without getting the desired results, I guarantee you aren’t working hard at the hard stuff. The hard stuff is hard for you, not necessarily for everyone else.
Plenty of people in the world have knowledge, creativity, interpersonal, and other skills. Many of these areas of intelligence contribute to success. However, no matter how much natural talent you have in one area, achieving your goals will require hard work in other areas. Avoiding the work in needed areas will delay or deny your success.
The most talented person is not always at the top. Often, the hardest-working person is at the top. It’s the person who took the risk of rejection, asked for help, became proficient at a task they hated, spent the most time in meetings, uprooted their family for an opportunity, or stood in the line the longest.
A songwriter can create thousands of beautiful songs. A football player can practice throwing balls 10 hours a day. An author can write a book every year. These are talents and gifts. But to be successful requires something beyond talent if you want to share your gifts with the world.
Key to Success
If you permit yourself to pursue something you know you aren’t good at, you will get ahead. You already expect to work hard. You’re not going to rely only on your gifts and talents. The key to success is doing what needs to be done.
Hard workers are resilient and ready to map out success. They don’t work within their comfort zone and hope for success. They come to terms with whatever is required to succeed, then create a path for themselves.
Hard workers know their weaknesses. Your weaknesses determine how you should work hard. If you are not improving your weak areas, you aren’t working as hard as you think.
Even in unfair systems, hard workers take responsibility for breaking through barriers. They are motivated by challenging work and are willing and ready to push through. They don’t mind being underestimated and proving people wrong.
Being gifted doesn’t make you a leader or guarantee success. Hard workers sit in the learner’s seat. They learn to follow, not just lead. They welcome new experiences because they don’t require success at everything.
Being a little fish in the big pond is ok. You don’t always want to be the center of attention when you work hard. People seem to have sudden success because they were not at the forefront while working hard. The media presents people to us when their hard work is done.
Getting Real
Get honest with yourself and own up to the areas where you are not working hard enough. Make a new plan, one that allows for trial and error. Remind yourself that the goal is to be successful, not comfortable, not just seen.
Your significant gifts and talents may or may not be where your success lies. Determine what you want and pursue it. It doesn’t matter if you are the best at it. Hard work can close most talent gaps between the haves, and the have less.
I had to learn a whole lot more about business. I am a solid entrepreneur now because I know how to work hard. My talents contribute to less than 50% of my success. I’ve had to develop many more skills through hard work.
I obtained several mentors to help me understand how to develop working relationships. I had to learn the essential events to attend, how to ask for help, and what to do when help is offered. I also had to learn to provide support to others.
Success is available through hard work, not a lot of convenient work. What you hate most about success may be what you need to do more. There are no shortcuts. Don’t look for the long shot. Long-term success takes time. Sometimes the hardest work is sticking to it. Don’t give up.
