Practice and Hard Work

This quote was originally said by Ed Macauley, basketball player from the St. Louis Hawks (now the Atlanta Hawks) and it was what inspired Bill Bradley to practice more than almost anyone else in the league at the time.

"When you're not practicing, someone somewhere is. And when the two of you meet, given roughly equal ability, he will win."

The idea of practicing/working hard is important not just in sports, but in any endeavor in which you want to excel. In the context of work, your career, or your hobby, if you want to succeed you have to be willing to put in the extra effort to beat out your opposition.

Maybe it's skipping happy hour to stay late and catch up on a project, maybe it's going the extra mile for a client or boss, or maybe it's going to a coffeeshop every night to study instead of watching TV. You're putting yourself in the best position to succeed when it counts.

I know that personally, the thought that someone else might win ("And when the two of you meet, given roughly equal ability, he will win") makes me even more determined to do the work needed. I don't want to lose because of lack of effort.

This hard work adds up and pays off down the road when you're the one picked to lead the project, when you get a promotion, when your piece was chosen, when your business takes off, or when you land the coveted job or position everyone else was hoping for. Remember if you don't want to be great, someone else does and is making it happen everyday - edging you out.

When you feel yourself getting lazy, think again about the quote. Now, get out there and put in the hard work.

Confucius Says...Choose a Job You Love

"Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life." - Confucius

I disagree.

In concept and philosophically, I get what the old guy is saying, but I think regardless of what you do, hard work is important and sometimes it will feel like "work" even if you absolutely love what you do.

Certainly there are times that even with an ideal job, you have to push yourself to take care of what needs to be taken care of. It might be a task that you don't like to do, or a difficult situation or person that you have to deal with, but it definitely feels like "work" at that point.

A successful entrepreneur recently told me that there are a lot of days when he'd prefer to sleep in, but his success is based on hard work and dedication. I'm sure at 5:15am, it definitely feels like work to him, especially when compared with sleeping in. Although he loves what he does, there are definitely times that it is "work".

Personally, I would interpret Confucius' statement above to be more along the lines of "if you have a job that you love, you're less likely to get that helpless, boxed in, or desperate feeling".

To modernize his statement a bit, I would say something like -

"Choose a job you love, and you will never have to:

• Sit in your car before work dreading the day until the last possible minute before going in
  
• Call your mom on your lunch break to complain about how much you hate your job
  
• Ask yourself why you spend so much time commuting in traffic
• Write "it's not that bad" over and over to convince yourself to stick it out
• Pretend that you're working even though you're g-chatting your friends, playing Scrabulous, and surfing the web all day
  
• Sit in the bathroom with your head in your hands just to get away from it all
• Stare at your cubicle walls wondering what happened to your hopes and dreams"

Have you found yourself feeling this way recently? Maybe it's time to find a job you love; just be aware that it won't always be a walk in the park. Everything worthwhile requires some degree of work. But at least the payout won't leave you feeling frustrated or ready to go postal.

• What do you think?