Keep Pounding the Rock
Why I think hard work is the key to a happy life.
For the past two years my weeks have all gone as such: Wake up. Go to class. Eat lunch. Read. Go back to class. Go to the gym. Go to work. Read for leisure. Spend time with friends and partner. Sleep. Repeat.
It’s a hectic schedule, one that requires copious amounts of caffeine and the occasional binge meal or two, but that schedule for me was non-stop for a long time, with my first break coming this summer. What I learned during my two year time management bender was simple yet inspiring: human beings are designed to work hard.
I decided this summer that I would take the entire break to relax and count my blessings (of which there are many thankfully) and return to school in the fall with an invigorated sense of self and motivation leaking out of my ears. I quickly realized that in letting off the throttle, easing up on the gas so to speak, I left myself without purpose. Without an outlet. Because of this, I discovered the value in the hard work I had been doing nearly every day for two consecutive years, however difficult and taxing it may have been.
From a young age, I was taught that anything worth having was worth working for. Do you want extra spending cash? Work for it. Do you want that new toy? Work for it. Want that new fire pit in the back yard? Go out and work for it, build it with your bare hands and reap the benefits, physically and mentally. Luckily, this was a family virtue, having been born into a household that proudly declared it’s blue-collar roots, seeing work as what it was: just what you did. Little did we know the underlying benefits.
The importance of hard work was ingrained into the very fabric of my being. It was an outlet, something that cleansed the soul. I firmly believe that it changes us. The way we work at our jobs, whether they be manual labor or purely academic in their pursuits, they require an energy deposit, one that helps to form the foundation for a happy life.
I’d like to see more people take solace in such a revelation. Understand that hard work is to be embraced, not avoided. More often than not many people, myself included, take great pride in their work. It makes them feel good. The benefit of a job well done. Ambition and duty incarnate.
In taking the summer off I realized that the “relaxation” that I wanted out of the break was an illusion. Without purpose, some goal or sense of accomplishment, I was but a husk of my former self. Less productive, less happy, and most importantly – less fulfilled.
“Life grants nothing to us mortals without hard work.” — Horace
With more time at home, I noticed something interesting. I was more attuned to the workings of my household, of which my grandfather and grandmother are a part of, and witnessed what I believe to be an affirmation of my personal discovery. My grandfather worked in a factory within my hometown, a plant that manufactured parts for airplanes, and did so for more than twenty years. He’s recounted tales of factory life and the rigorous demands of such a career. Inevitably, he retired in his mid-sixties, effectively completing the American dream. He had built his own house, had children, watched them grow up into adulthood, all the while working to enter his twilight years where he could live in peace, free of financial worry, and resign himself to the less demanding aspects of the human experience.
All that was well and good but something intriguing happened. Within the first six months, he was bored beyond belief. He read the newspaper daily, watched television with reckless abandonment, and did what he very well pleased. By all accounts, that’s what we all strive for, but he soon became restless. The desire to move and work and create had been woven into the fabric of his being, stitched into the double helix that comprises his DNA.
He undertook any small project my grandmother or I myself could dream up with zeal and enthusiasm. This was evident in the speed with which he would work, often late into the night, well beyond the timeframe of a normal job. It’s as if we thrive on the chance to use our skills and time and effort in pursuit of something outside ourselves.
The vast majority of the time our efforts are anything but easy, draining us of our energy and will to pursue betterment, but that doesn’t mean that hard work is any less valuable. It fills us up with the sort of satisfaction that far outweighs that likes of instant gratification. So on behalf of Hard Work, I implore you to search for it anywhere you can. Study hard. Work hard. Seek out the things in life that challenge you. They shape us. They build us up. They lay the bedrock for a happy life. Of that, I am certain. In recognizing the usefulness of hard work I found within myself a chasm filled only by its presence, an area of the mind and soul and body that must be tired out in the pursuit of the head throbbing and back-breaking work that we too often avoid.
Not only does hard work benefit us directly by cleansing the soul and strengthing our sense of self, it more often than not leads to more superficial benefits as well. The ones that work the hardest are often paid the best, afforded more opportunities in life, and generally better off financially, lest you need more incentive. The most successful people in the world, today and in years past, have been the hardest workers in the room. They exhaust themselves in the pursuit of the next project, whether it be for themselves or others, they toil away in the trenches of life. The vast majority of those people look back on their lives and deem it more than satisfactory, and if given the chance, they’d do it all over again in the same manner. Such confirmation of the value of unending work is astounding.
Once you recognize Hard Work for what it truly is you won’t be able to go back. You’ll be addicted to the fruits of your labor, searching for any scenario in which you can nourish yourself, physically and mentally. So go out into the world. Read difficult books. Work tough jobs. Gain that perspective and then pass it on. Spread the word of its benefits and how it should become, once again, one of the traits upon which we pride ourselves. Use hard work as a way to propel yourself forward with the knowledge that you will have come out the other end of this life happier and more fulfilled because of it. I know I will. Always remember to keep pounding the rock.
