Hard Work Pays Off: finding joy in hard work

The first month of 2024 has now drawn to a close. It is also the end of the first full month that THW has been on line. So far, I’ve met my goal to post once a week. It’s not been easy meeting this goal with school holidays and other competing obligations. So, what I thought I would do in this post is share with you the strategies I use to stay on track with goals I have set myself.

I have not always been someone who is able to complete tasks I set myself or are set by others. Sometimes, I’d start off great and then pretty quickly fade away distracted by other things and the goal would be dropped, picked up again only to be dropped a second or third time. Looking back on my 54 years, I’d say I spent more of my life doing that than what I tend to do now which is to set a goal and then stick to it. Being Herculean in this sense has taken a long time to develop and has really come about partly through motivation and partly as a result of embracing the philosophy of the hard graft. What I mean is that I now take joy in labour understanding that the essence of being human is to work. I’ve worked hard in my life. Hell, a PhD is many things but first and foremost it is hard work. However, it has only been in the last few years that I’ve embraced the joy of hard work and understand it philosophically as a part of being human.

I also want to note that by hard work, I mean the tedious, repetitive stuff that one needs to do to a) get something done, b) to develop the skill to do something well and c) to build the capacity to concentrate on a task and finish it off. Most labour is not glamorous. Actually, most labour is rather dull and boring. But, those boring tasks done meticulously and consistently are very satisfying because over time it is this dedication which brings results.

It has always been so and always will be

Over two thousand years ago, Aristotle said:

“Excellence is an art won by training and habituation. We do not act rightly because we have virtue or excellence, but we rather have those because we have acted rightly. We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.”

That was the way it was back then and it remains so today. The joy is in the task, Aristotle said  it, and it is this delight in work which is an essential component of being human. I have read quite a bit lately on “greatness” and what has been clear in all the philosophy, motivational guides, leadership books on this topic is the need to work hard. I wrote about this in my first post that reviewed Arnold Schwarzenegger’s most recent book which I suggested could be condensed down to one tool for life: work hard.

Many people write about the work smart, not hard scenario. And, while I subscribe to the idea that one shouldn’t spend their work life overwrought by petty distractions and procrastinations, I find the distinction between smart and hard problematic. Instead, the

saying should be work smart and hard which might result in work smart, hard and for less time and achieve the same, or even better, results. I don’t think anyone would argue with this approach.

Taking a position, a philosophical position that is, that hard work, and a job well done, are an individual “good”, a reward and a form of pleasure can fundamentally alter one’s relationship to work and to themselves. Shifting how we perceive the value and reward of our labour from monetary values, and other similar external markers of “success”, will mean receiving satisfaction from the act of labour itself regardless of what one is paid, or the identity others might give someone based on the  common definition ascribed to their job.

‘Allow your passion to become your purpose, and it will one day become your profession.” NYT best selling author Gabrielle Berstein.

This message was made to clear to me many years ago when about 2/3rds of my way through my PhD, I started to think about what jobs I could apply for and the books I would write rather than focus my attention on my thesis. Seeing me distracted from my work on the thesis by the glamour of what was to come after the PhD, my mentor sat me down and said in no uncertain terms that the glory was in the thesis itself and that by centring my attention on the thesis, I would do more for my post PhD prospects than a thousand job applications or book proposals. My goodness he was right. That advice might have been close to the most valuable advice I could ever have received. I am eternally grateful to Professor Peter Vale for that intervention.

I am not saying money or titles are entirely superfluous. Rather, my focus here is to say that by focusing on hard work and good work, rather than money or fame, is the key to something greater than money and fame; self-worth. That said, in many instances, monetary gain and fame, are outcomes of hard work that is done very well.

As Aristotle’s student Plato remarked; “I never did anything worth doing by accident, nor did any of my inventions come by accident; they came by work.”

Consistency and Repetition is how to make Hard Work Pay Off

Just as the Ancient Greeks, who it must be pointed out left much of the day to day labour to women and to slaves, understood the value of work, modern gurus of successful living have this message front and centre of their advice to people. All the best selling authors and practitioners of leadership such as Robin Sharma, James Clear, Danielle Laporte, David Goggins, and Lewis Howes, to name a few.  They all have much more to say of value than work hard and find joy in labour itself, but it is clear that for all of them, labour in, and for, itself is a pillar of leadership, greatness, self-worth, being inspirational and success.

In much of what is written, back two millennia ago, and today about success, I think we can say it starts with the idea that the joy of hard work is the basis for both success and happiness. It seems simple doesn’t it. Dedicate yourself to something and in time it will bring you great rewards and self-worth. Many people have made the point that a few minutes each day on a task is of greater value than a day here or there. The act of disciplining oneself to follow through might be the foundation on which hard work is built. Danielle Laporte, for example, says: “The secret to success: Do what you say you're going to do.” Again, it seems simple, but each year in January, millions of people start the year with an oath to get fit, eat healthy, learn a new skill, change their spending habits and by February many, many of them have reneged on their oath. No one is immune from this. I know I have done so in the past. Back in my twenties, I tried to quit smoking 8 times. Luckily for me, on the ninth attempt, I succeeded.

These days, I don’t make new year resolutions. Instead, every day I try to live by the motto of DWYSYAGTDN. This translates into do what you say you are going to do Noah. I stole this phrase from David Pocock, one time Australian rugby great and now Federal Senator in the Australian parliament. I don’t always manage it, but many days I do. What has become obvious to me is that this idea of doing what you say you are going to do lies at the core of one of the most important values for self-worth and reputation; integrity.

This leads me to another quote from Aristotle about we are what we do. He says that we,

“...acquire a particular quality by constantly acting a particular way... you become just by performing just actions, temperate by performing temperate actions, brave by performing brave actions.”

I think this is also a reminder that we embody what we do and that healthy eating and exercise is imprinted on the body. If we eat healthy, exercise and live a healthy life, we will become healthy. I have written about it before. But, I believe it is so important- a fundamental axiom of life- that I will, you can be assured, I will write about it again.

That said, the idea of doing what we say we are going to do, or just doing, is so fundamentally central to living a successful life that I think it probably deserves a post, or a few posts, dedicated to it.

Now on to the practical. I have a few tips to share with you that might help you to stick to your goals.

The first one is to start the day early- whatever that may mean for you. For me it means 5am. Some people might work later and for them to get 7 or 8 hrs of sleep, they might not be able to get up until 7 or 8am. That’s fine. Make early a mind set for you and one way to do this is to, not only start it early, it is to also to start the day well. If the sun is up, or coming up, when you wake up to the sun. Soak it up a little. Breathe it in as part of your morning ritual.

Starting the day well is my second tip. Try to do a couple of good things (I choose 2) and achieve 3 things first up before social media, emails, etc., If I’m awake first I like to give my partner a kiss as I get out of bed and write down one positive statement in my journal right away. Some days it’s a gratitude statement and other days it is a statement of what I want to achieve on that day. There are my 2 good things done. Then, while I make coffee I unpack the dishwasher and put away any pans or pots, knives, etc., we used the night before. Then, with my coffee in hand, I go to my desk for 20-30mins and write. I don’t email or read the internet and I don’t, under any circumstances, turn to social media. Once I have written for 30 minutes, I make my partner a cup of tea, and take it up to her (that’s now 3 good things I’ve done). We sit and chat for a few minutes and then I do 15-20 minutes of mobility exercises. That’s my third good achievement. By now it is about 6am and I can start with my other obligations either dog walking or making packed lunches and getting a child ready for school and the day ahead. Whatever happens from here, I have written, and I have worked on my mobility and range of motion, both things I am committed to doing every day.

My third tip is to make time at least, i.e. minimum, three days a week for exercise. If you’ve got time to watch some show (more likely than not it will be an asinine one) on your phone, or scroll social media, or watch TV at night, you have time for exercise. No excuses permitted. Regardless of how busy or tired you are, 3 sessions of serious exercise per week is what you should be aiming for as a minimum. What I mean by serious exercise is you lift or sweat properly for 40 minutes each session. Sometimes I can’t get to the gym or even get out of the house. On those days I’ll get up early and do something. Here’s an example: a bit of a warm up, jumping jacks, downward dogs to cobras, world’s great stretch and then into a workout of 10 sets of 10 push ups, 10 air squats, 10 burpees, 10 reverse lunges and 10 sit ups/leg raises/V-ups. No equipment needed, very little impact or noise if little ones are sleeping and you’ve ticked off exercise for the day. I’m not a fan of people who say they can’t exercise, too busy, too tired (exercise is energising) or I can’t because I can’t get to the gym. Buy a decent weighted dumbbell or kettlebell and there are dozens of exercises you can do in your own home or local park. Literally dozens. So, exercise three times a week. No excuses will be accepted.

Hopefully, if you started an exercise regime at the start of the year like the one I suggested in blog post Number 2: “Exercise as Medicine”, you’re still going strong. If not, try some of the tips above and see if that helps you sustain the “habit”. Next week, I’m going to say a little more about how to turn desired activities into habits and with it a word or two about the next stage of the exercise program I set out in “Exercise as Medicine”.  Until next week, stay Herculean.