Second Chance
Have you noticed that work doesn’t seem to reward us equally? That there appears to be some magical way of working, which produces greater reward, and some other way that produces lesser?
I differentiate these two types of working as: Hard work & Hard labour. They simply do not produce the same results.
Here is probably why:
A lazy person is not one who never works. He/she is a person who toils only when compelled to. Unlike the successful, the lazy never labour out of choice.
Often it appears that they work very hard. In fact, the old maxim states that the lazy labour twice as hard. While the efforts may appear comparable, the focus and purpose is not.
It’s not our effort alone that’s getting rewarded, but the purpose of that effort and the focus with which it is applied.
Though actual effort may remain the same, one kind of work reflects our choice and the other a lack of it.
It’s our choice that’s being rewarded when we work hard and hard labour, since it is bereft of this choice, receives a lesser return.
One of our unique differentiators is our ability to choose and we need to exercise that to gain rich reward.
As parents, our work is not to ‘settle’ our offspring via marriage/inheritance/job etc. It is to provide our offspring with the independent courage and conviction to live lives of choice.
Parenting would be complete and perfected if you can discover that you have not robbed your offspring of this very ability.
It’s quite easy to recognize those who perform such ‘hard labour’. They’re usually the ones who make the most noise about their efforts. Both as they perform their chores and in their boasts.
Organisations are continually challenged by the need to push or pull these ‘hard labour’ employees and ‘get them’ to perform. In offices these are most easily recognizable as the clock-watchers.
They will be the first to tell you why things can’t be done. They always know why things were better in the past and why the boss is such an idiot.
At home, they’re the ones who complain, the ones who are least appreciative of others efforts and the ones who make the loudest noise …most easily heard in the kitchen.
The lazy constantly gripe. They simply cannot work silently – it’s as if their entire being is rebelling against this ‘unfair’ situation of forced labor.
The lazy are always seeking rest. They do labour, yet with a focus on rest. Their focus is on ‘Completion’; on the fact that something has been done, been earned, been completed.
The hardworking person in contrast, is consumed. Everything that s/he completes is only a link or a doorway to the incomplete.
The hard working find rest in death, s/he simply cannot retire. Purpose, focus, effort, is their life. They cannot abandon it.
The challenge facing man is not to be successful in parameters of comfort.
Almost everybody I deal with can provide for keeping more than a couple of generations comfortable.
The challenge is in knowing what one loves to work at. What one wants to do and then to be able to work at it – to live a life of choice.
A man who is able to subject himself willingly is extremely successful. How much ever a person may try, there is no individual who may escape the need our creation has of being subject to something else other than himself.
Money provides a mirage of escape for the foolish.
This is a law: The work of a fool wearies him.
They are victims to a life of dull constraint and squandered choice. They always “have to do “ things and rarely “want to do”.
They’re decision-making is almost always governed by appearances and the “supposed-to-do” things.
They’ve abandoned living their own lives and are always living another’s, trying their best to compel you to do the same.
Here is a simple test:
Answer this question that I ask so many people everyday, for yourself – “What would you like to be coached on today?”
If you’re struggling for that answer it’s probably because you’re victim to Hard Labour.
If the answer comes easily ~~~ you know whom to call. If it doesn’t, coaching is one good way to gain your second chance.
I differentiate these two types of working as: Hard work & Hard labour. They simply do not produce the same results.
Here is probably why:
A lazy person is not one who never works. He/she is a person who toils only when compelled to. Unlike the successful, the lazy never labour out of choice.
Often it appears that they work very hard. In fact, the old maxim states that the lazy labour twice as hard. While the efforts may appear comparable, the focus and purpose is not.
It’s not our effort alone that’s getting rewarded, but the purpose of that effort and the focus with which it is applied.
Though actual effort may remain the same, one kind of work reflects our choice and the other a lack of it.
It’s our choice that’s being rewarded when we work hard and hard labour, since it is bereft of this choice, receives a lesser return.
One of our unique differentiators is our ability to choose and we need to exercise that to gain rich reward.
As parents, our work is not to ‘settle’ our offspring via marriage/inheritance/job etc. It is to provide our offspring with the independent courage and conviction to live lives of choice.
Parenting would be complete and perfected if you can discover that you have not robbed your offspring of this very ability.
It’s quite easy to recognize those who perform such ‘hard labour’. They’re usually the ones who make the most noise about their efforts. Both as they perform their chores and in their boasts.
Organisations are continually challenged by the need to push or pull these ‘hard labour’ employees and ‘get them’ to perform. In offices these are most easily recognizable as the clock-watchers.
They will be the first to tell you why things can’t be done. They always know why things were better in the past and why the boss is such an idiot.
At home, they’re the ones who complain, the ones who are least appreciative of others efforts and the ones who make the loudest noise …most easily heard in the kitchen.
The lazy constantly gripe. They simply cannot work silently – it’s as if their entire being is rebelling against this ‘unfair’ situation of forced labor.
The lazy are always seeking rest. They do labour, yet with a focus on rest. Their focus is on ‘Completion’; on the fact that something has been done, been earned, been completed.
The hardworking person in contrast, is consumed. Everything that s/he completes is only a link or a doorway to the incomplete.
The hard working find rest in death, s/he simply cannot retire. Purpose, focus, effort, is their life. They cannot abandon it.
The challenge facing man is not to be successful in parameters of comfort.
Almost everybody I deal with can provide for keeping more than a couple of generations comfortable.
The challenge is in knowing what one loves to work at. What one wants to do and then to be able to work at it – to live a life of choice.
A man who is able to subject himself willingly is extremely successful. How much ever a person may try, there is no individual who may escape the need our creation has of being subject to something else other than himself.
Money provides a mirage of escape for the foolish.
This is a law: The work of a fool wearies him.
They are victims to a life of dull constraint and squandered choice. They always “have to do “ things and rarely “want to do”.
They’re decision-making is almost always governed by appearances and the “supposed-to-do” things.
They’ve abandoned living their own lives and are always living another’s, trying their best to compel you to do the same.
Here is a simple test:
Answer this question that I ask so many people everyday, for yourself – “What would you like to be coached on today?”
If you’re struggling for that answer it’s probably because you’re victim to Hard Labour.
If the answer comes easily ~~~ you know whom to call. If it doesn’t, coaching is one good way to gain your second chance.