Personal Finance Friday - The Hardest Work

So here is the thing, thinking is the hardest work of all. Sometimes it's easier to do something for longer, or waste some time as long as you don't have to think through something. Have you ever had that feeling? "Ehh I don't want to have to think about it, I'll just do it this way..."

We all do it, but that little thought when applied to an entire life can be the difference between getting what you want out of life, and looking back in disappointment.

There is a common thought and saying among certain people, "Work hard and you'll do well!" There are others who hear that and say, "Hey! I knew someone who worked super hard their whole life and they didn't do well. They worked seven days a week 12 hours a day at 3 jobs, and they were always struggling." I've seen that too, but I also believe the first statement is true. How do you square those two realities? Well as mentioned up above, the hardest work is thinking, analyzing, planning, adjusting, reanalyzing, researching, asking, etc etc. Work super, super, super, super hard all day everyday digging a ditch and in the end you're probably not making progress to where you want to go (unless you're putting in an irrigation system :).

Related to this, my wife and I were discussing the opportunities certain people are presented with in their life, and the idea of "leaning in" (which is from a book by the name, written by Sheryl Sandberg) came up. The book is about women doing it all, but it's also a general principle for life. My wife was relating how insulting the book can be to those at the bottom of the economic ladder. Which I agreed if viewed from a certain angle it could be, but I think it applies to the hard work question. "Lean In" doesn't mean just do more, it means think about what you're doing and how you're doing it. It doesn't mean you can magically go from being a single mom with 3 kids to the CEO of a fortune 500 company, but it might mean going from poverty to the middle class.

In the end, I think there are maybe 1 in a 100 people that really just have no opportunity... circumstances, luck, whatever, it's just seems impossible, or at least nearly so, for them to improve their lives. But for the rest... it is possible. Is it easy? My lord, no!!! Is it fair? My lord, no!!! But is it possible? Absolutely. I've seen too many people make a series of good choices and rise out of bad situations, and I've seen too many make a series of poor choices which make them sink or stay in their same bad situation.

So what is the point of this post? Don't just go through the motions. Spend some time thinking. Spend some time working on your future, not just working on the moment. If you consider yourself a hard worker, make sure you are actually doing the hardest work of all, thinking things through. In the end it pays the highest return.