On working hard and being lazy
I just finished lunch and great discussion with a good friend. We were talking about several books including “The Four Hour Work Week” (which, if you have talked to me for more than 5-minutes, I have mentioned it to you, I’m sure!). We ended up on the same thought:
Thinking about how to work less is much more difficult than just working hard.
Is that hard to understand?
Here’s the thing.
We get wrapped up in the comfort of just “working hard”.
“If you are busy, you will be successful”… that’s not necessarily the case.
Being still and REALLY concentrating on a “better way” is much harder than just “doing SOMETHING”…
“Doing something” can be the default mode that can keep you busy for sure, but not necessarily successful.
For instance:
I can get scissors and cut my lawn with them if I wanted… I would be busy…
I can get a lawn mower, crank it and make very easy work of it… be done in a few minutes… The first one makes me feel as though I have done more “honest” work.
OR how bout this… why don’t I hire someone who can do it in less time than I ever could..meanwhile, I use that time to do something that is more creative for me.
The same could be said for changing the oil in the car, balancing the checkbook, or even calling Pastors trying to get bookings?
Just as love and hate are related and indifference is the opposite of those two things, being busy and being lazy are also related and being bored is the opposite. Being bored forces you to create things… being busy makes you maintain things..
Are you “being busy” about your gifts? Are you doing things others are doing just because others are doing them? or are you doing the REALLY hard work of thinking outside the box?
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Agreed. The danger for me is always “analysis paralysis”, which is the mode I’ve been stuck in most of my life. Like in writing of any kind, at some point you just have to take the first step. The hard part is stepping in the right direction.
I’m with you Bernie. I’m not sure we “creative types” will ever get over that… I’m looking for a way though!
Thanks for the comment!
Kevin
I am constantly thinking about this but not sure I always succeed. There have been numerous books written on time management. Some of them good and some of them not so good. If you get a good one and implement just a few things it can save you massive amounts of time. Thinking about remodeling houses, I could remodel an entire house myself. While I am handy I know there are others much better and faster that do that on a daily basis. Is it more efficient and does it make more sense for me to do it myself and save a few dollars or have someone else do it better quality and faster and pay them a little bit to do it. While I am paying them a little bit I could be working my regular job the same amount of hours and make enough to pay them and still have some left over. In that case I have come out ahead.
The thing I always try and ask myself is where will I be the most effective. This is not always the thing that you want to do or that you like to do, but it is the place where you will have the most impact.
Andy Stanley says “only do what only YOU can do”..
I think that sums it up… what do you think?
kevin