Hard work pays off. Keep your head in the game. Try harder. Be passionate. Stay focused. Get moving. Make a good impression. Just do it. Don't give up.
Every day our culture pounds into our brains the idea of hard work and diligence being the path to success. It's all part of the American dream. If you put forth real effort, you can achieve your dreams. And if it isn't working out so well, then maybe you'd better try a little harder.
If only the formula were that simple. Hard work does not automatically equal success because of the many other factors influencing an individual's place in life. Beyond its idealistic implications, there is another problem with the concept of the American Dream: it pressures us to always be at the top of our game without allowing room for relaxation.
Exercising a muscle strengthens it, but pushing it too far will only tear it down and leave you weaker. This same principle holds true with all our work, whether intellectual, physical, or emotional. There is a point where continuing to work a given "muscle" or skill loses its effectiveness and becomes a detriment. Consider studying as an example: a student's success on an exam will be better if he or she spends some solid time studying. However, if the student crams all night and shows up groggy and forgetful, that study time will have actually hurt his or her chances of success.
At a certain point, you have to stop caring so much.
As a student, this has been one of the hardest lessons I have learned; knowing when to quit is harder than writing essays or memorizing vocabulary words. From an early age, school encourages us to constantly be doing. By the time you apply for college, you are supposed to have stellar grades, an array of extracurricular activities, high standardized test scores, job experience, and a positive attitude. And if you have managed to check all these things off your list, the reward is struggling to maintain your high standards through the rest of college. It is exhausting and sometimes I wished I could be OK with getting Ds and Cs, skipping class, and not doing my work. I was too afraid of disappointing my teachers, my parents, or myself to risk it. People compliment me on my work ethic when the truth is, it was a fear of failure that fueled me. I don't want to succeed. I have to succeed. Every little mistake feels like a slap across the face, and, as an imperfect human, I am constantly getting slapped around.
Living in this state of constant terror is not sustainable. So slowly, painfully, I have begun to let go.
Hard work and success are addictive. Perhaps this is why so many outwardly successful people struggle with personal and emotional issues. Once you start doing well, you just have to do better and better and better and it seems like there is no room for mistakes. Success will suffocate you.
So what's the point of these musings? Should we all just give up and decide to be mediocre in everything? Is it better to just stay in bed?
No. Life would be utterly boring without striving to be better. Hard work keeps us alive. A.A. Milne wrote, "Some people care too much. I think it's called love." Let's not give up on love. But rather than trying to make ourselves give our all to everything, let's find what we really love, and devote our passion to that. It is the artificial caring, the pushing and forcing that hurts us. It isn't easy, but in order to honor what really matters to us, sometimes we have to say "no" to something else, or at least acknowledge that it isn't as important. Maybe you neglected your homework because you were comforting a heartbroken friend. Maybe you skipped work to get that needed extra sleep. Maybe you spent too much money on a trip to France you've always wanted. It's fine. Not everything deserves your constant attention and focus.
After too much time constantly running from failure, I am striving to cultivate the art of not caring. I will sweep out what doesn't matter to me to make room for what I truly love. I will let myself breathe. My hard work is valuable, and not everything deserves it.
