Work Hard: It’s Good for the World and Your Soul

Working hard is easy if you love your job, because then it won’t feel like work. But even if you’re working just to pay the bills, work hard and try to enjoy your job anyway. Work is good for your soul. It makes life meaningful, and gives you a reason to wake up every morning.

Work hard in these 5 ways

1. Whistle while you work

Learn to enjoy your work, even if it’s not what you really want to do. When you train yourself to find the good in anything that you do, more good will come your way.

Being positive and cheerful has nothing to do with what you actually do for a living. It’s a decision to have a certain attitude. I have met cheery bus drivers who make their passengers’ day, and sweepers who delight in keeping the park clean and beautiful for visitors. It’s not the title you hold, it’s the you inside that counts.

2. Give 100% everyday

Enjoying your work doesn’t mean taking ten coffee breaks a day and hanging out in the pantry gossiping. I used to do that too, and it was enjoyable then only because I was young and immature. I didn’t realise that this was not the kind of person I want to be. If you’re going through that phase now, I’m not being critical of you. I’m just saying that there is a better way to spend your time.

Whatever time you spend at the office is paid for by your employer. If you wouldn’t pay yourself for the work you did today, why should anyone else? If your work is not worth paying for, you are committing career suicide. You get paid when you create value for someone willing to pay for that value. If you don’t provide value, you’ll be out of work pretty quickly. Give it all you’ve got, no matter what you do.

3. Develop your skills

Working hard includes working hard on yourself. Increase your competence by reading books, attending courses, and building networks. If you’ve found your career niche, improve your skills so that you can remain in this career for the long term. If you are thinking of changing careers, then you need to develop skills that you will need in your next job or business.

Working on yourself has intangible rewards such as self-esteem, job satisfaction, and the respect of others. Eventually your market value will increase and so will your remuneration.

4. Make a difference

If you’re going to spend eight to ten hours a day working, for forty years of your life, for goodness sake make it count. You don’t have to change the world. Just make one customer happy each day. Help ease a colleague’s burden today. Take a load off your boss’s shoulders by being responsible and accountable. Bring relief to a subordinate by being a compassionate boss.

If you positively impact one person a day with your work, you will have brought sunshine into the lives of thousands of people in the course of your career. If that doesn’t give meaning to work, I don’t know what does.

5. Be open to opportunity

When you’ve done all the above – when you’re a cheerful, positive, competent worker who always gives 100% and whom people love being around, opportunities will come into your life even if you don’t go looking for them. Ex-bosses and co-workers will ask you to join their new companies or businesses. Friends and colleagues won’t hesitate to recommend you when they know of an opening.

Even if you are not in that kind of demand, working hard will stand you in much better stead if you decide to hunt down other opportunities on your own. You’ll have higher chances of success when you apply for the next job or start your own business.

One of life’s lovely ironies is that when you work hard, work becomes less hard!