Monday, May 5, 2014

May 5, 2014 Focus Point

Work and Persistence Pays Off

"Nothing will work unless you do." ~Maya Angelou

"The only place success comes before work is in the dictionary." ~Vince Lombardi

"By working faithfully eight hours a day you may eventually get to be boss and work twelve hours a day." ~Robert Frost

"All labor that uplifts humanity has dignity and importance and should be undertaken with painstaking excellence." ~Martin Luther King, Jr.

Do you love work? I love work. You do not have to look very far to see that hard work is becoming a lost art, a thing of the past. Something that many, many people appear so much to be afraid of. Like I always say, "A little work won't hurt you", and so far it has held out true. I am convinced that those who are afraid of rolling up their sleeves and diving in will never receive the reward of the satisfaction that only comes after the sweat breaks the forehead. If success is a scale that suggests balance, one side would be thought or the goal setting, which includes vision and direction. The other side would be action or the mechanics of doing the thing. Buckling down and working hard, causing something to move. After all nothing works unless and until you do. You hear people say, "I don't feel like it". Well the truth of it is that you are much more likely to act yourself into feeling like it, then you are to feel yourself into any sort of action.

In a 1903 Labor Day speech, Theodore Roosevelt said something about work in such a powerful way that we still remember it and quote him to this day. "Far and away the best prize that life has to offer is the chance to work hard at work worth doing." The key is doing what you love. Work hard at a job you love and you will never work a day in your life.

Successful people are not afraid of work, they are willing, able, and capable of doing what it takes. They expand their capacities and become more capable by just going for it. They do not however work in hectic fashion but rather with purpose, direction, and specific goals. Having a goal is like going on a hike in the mountains with a specific aim and destination and the work of course is hiking down the trail. No goal or direction would be like setting out on a hike with no destination in mind. You can hike all you want and put tremendous effort in, but you will never get there. It is impossible to get to somewhere that is nowhere. If you don't know where you are going, any road will take you there.

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