Last week we examined the long-offered (and hard held, excuse the pun) belief that… success TAKES hard work. If you’re new to the discussion or haven’t seen last week’s article, “Success [DOESN’T] Take Hard Work” check it out here.

In case anyone is tempted to add in the “but hard work is necessary for/helps you grow” argument, I’d add (somewhat rhetorically): You are really not so dense as to believe that hard work is required to grow are you? We all evolve. Life, by its very nature grows us.

Be willing and able to grow naturally; allow yourself to grow from insight.

Im inclined to agree with Jim. If the nail does need to go into the piece of wood, hitting it with a hammer is probably going to be the best way to go about it.

I think a lot of it depends on what it is you are trying to achieve. For example, a weight lifter lifting weights to get a fitter body. Surely you need you need to push your body to get it to grow the muscle? To me that would appear to be hard work. To someone who was used to it, or who did it regularly, or what had it in their soul to do it, it wouldn’t be hard work, maybe?

I (hypothetically) want to become a bach practitioner. I have to do a lot of coursework, and sit several exams. To me, that’s not hard work. I want to do it. To someone else it might appear hard or difficult, but I know that Ill just sail through it, because I want to do it.~ Solomon 05-07-2006 10:34 AM

I responded:

I figured the conversation would go quickly to a discussion where people quickly searched for areas that you must “work hard” in order to make gains.

You’ve hit upon a number of important points, Sol. Still, I’m going to ask you to sharpen the focus slightly: I would encourage people — for the moment — to focus the conversation first solely upon the aspect of “easy.”

We’ll get to “hard” soon enough 😉~ mfarmerhi 05-07-2006 01:16 PM

Eric Landry responded:

I did a 2 hour motivational speech in front of ~150 teachers on Friday. I can look at it as hard work but was it really hard work? I truly enjoyed reading all the books and articles that gave me the necessary knowledge to prepare for the conference. The actual preparation of the speech was only difficult because I allowed it to be. I was merely putting some of my thoughts on paper and rehearsing stuff I already knew. That isn’t really hard is it? Then the speaking aspect…sure talking for 2 hours with a cold and a sore throat isn’t all that fun, but I actually completely forgot about the cold the second I started to speak.

Was this speech a success in my life? ABSOLUTELY! No question about it. So I completely agree that some success can be easy IF we allow it to be. We can choose to make any simple task difficult just by choosing it to be difficult.

Now I still have a problem with certain tasks that I consider mandatory but not by choice such as taxes and all the stuff that goes around the easy stuff. Is my problem only the fact that I classify these tasks as difficult or as hard work? Maybe so.

I guess I find myself on the fence. Part of me believes that success is easy, while another part of me believes that you have to work hard on some things to be successful in general.~ Eric Landry 05-07-2006 06:25 PM

GSwee pitched in:

I’ve been struggling with this notion for a while. Sometimes I do think success is easy, other times, I see it as hard.

Maybe I don’t understand the concept entirely and I want to understand it, because the idea of success being easy is very appealing. :nod:

When I think of success as coming easily, I think of doing the things that you enjoy doing. If you enjoy doing a particular skill, then no matter how many hours you work on that skill, that work is also fun, it’s play, because you enjoy it so much. And then success comes easily because you simply become better at something that you love to do.

But then I also think that aside from doing the work you love, you have to probably do it more than you would like to at times, you have to push yourself to be disciplined, to put in the time even though you feel tired or you feel like doing something else. Also, the hard part comes when you deal with rejection or when you are working and working and you’re not seeing results (the plateau)…how do you learn to love that?

(Side note: I just read an AMAZING book that talks about loving the practice, loving the plateau…“Mastery” by George Leonard – a total eye opener!)

So these are my two conflicting views on success…part of it is easy, part of it is hard. At least that is what I see in my life.

I also believe that I am not trusting myself enough to make it easier for me…and I want to trust myself and enjoy the ride more, rather than focus on what I haven’t achieved yet.~ GSwee 05-08-2006 05:47 AM

bentoak added:

I came across this quote this morning and think it speaks to some of the issues you addressed GSwee.

“Without AMBITION one starts nothing. Without WORK one finishes nothing. The prize will NOT be sent to you. You have to WIN it. The man who knows HOW will always have a job. The man who also knows WHY will always be his boss. As to methods there may be a million and then some, but PRINCIPLES are few. The man who grasps PRINCIPLES can successfully select his own METHODS. The man who tries METHODS, ignoring PRINCIPLES, is sure to have trouble. (emphasis added)” ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson~ bentoak 05-09-2006 04:24 AM

Consider, dear reader, perhaps for the first time in your life: success does NOT have to be “hard.” It doesn’t have to come only through sheer toil and sweat and overcoming hard obstacles. Consider that there may be a very EASY way to reach where you’d like to go…

…or more profoundly: that if you had a different perspective or trusted or believed enough to look past your perceived lack or blind ambitions.. that you would choose NOT to go where you thought you wanted at all.

Hard work and ethics have nothing to do with each other – there is no virtue in hard work. Find the easy AND virtious way to get to the success you desire.

Begin looking for EASY and virtious success.

Copyright © 2006, Mark Farmer. Right to reprint automatically granted as long as accompanied by this notice and live Web link to http://LifeSuccessEngine.com