It sounds like good advice, doesn’t it? Do hard things, take on bigger challenges, put in more hours—that’s how you get ahead today. That’s what the books and videos and blogs repeatedly tell us.
Doing hard things, they say, helps us improve our skills and strengths, increase our confidence and self-discipline, and as we take on greater challenges and achieve them, we gain motivation to continue to achieve even more.
Our efforts compound, and so do our results. The harder we work, the more value we create for ourselves and the people we serve, ultimately leading to greater success and happiness.
But is it true?
Should we train ourselves to make hard work our default?
Not necessarily.
Learning new things, improving our skills, and putting in more effort can all distract us from doing the things we’re already good at and easily do—the types of things we get paid to do every day.
Doing hard things might actually make us less productive and lead to a lower standard of living.
It’s called hard work for a reason.
Don’t discount the value of doing easy things. The kinds of things we’ve been doing for a long time and are good at.
If we’re good at speaking, for example, we usually find ways to do more presentations, and the more we do, the more effective we become at convincing people with our oratory skills. We get more new clients, we win more motions and hearings, and we settle more cases for higher amounts. Without breaking a sweat.
So, which is it? Should we do more hard things or continue doing things we find easy?
Obviously, we need both. The better question is, “How much of each should we do?”
I don’t know the answer. I don’t have a formula or percentage. So here’s what I suggest.
As you plan your week, look at the list of tasks you need to do and make those your priority. Even if they are (relatively) easy. You need to do these to pay the bills.
But don’t ignore the hard things. You need to do these to learn more about yourself and what you could do, and to challenge yourself to do a bit more than you do now.
Do hard things, but make easy things your priority.
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