Do more hard things?

February 3, 2026 by
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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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Filed Under: Career satisfaction, success Tagged With:

Is hard work truly the key to success?

January 9, 2017 by
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All our lives we’ve been told that hard work is the key to success. And so all of our lives we’ve worked hard or felt guilty if we didn’t. But is hard work truly the key to success?

What about people who work hard and struggle all their lives? What about people who make it big without breaking a sweat?

It’s true that most successful people appear to work hard. They usually work long hours. They usually take on big challenges. They usually do things others see as difficult and stressful.

But are they really working hard?

If you ask them, I believe most successful people would tell you they love what they do and they don’t consider it hard work at all. They work long hours because they can’t think of anything they’d rather be doing.

When it’s fun, can it really be called hard work? Can it even be called work?

“When you do what you love, and love what you do,” it is said, “you’ll never work a day in your life.”

If you don’t love your work, change it. You don’t have to suffer your way to success. (I’m not even sure that’s possible.)

Get a new job or start a new career. Or give yourself permission to move in that direction. In the meantime, look for ways to make your current work more pleasant by focusing on aspects of it that you do enjoy.

If nothing more, see your work as a means to an end, that is, a way to pay your bills on the road to what’s next.

That’s what I did with my law practice. There were many things I didn’t like about it, which is why I decided to start a new career. But I didn’t dwell on what I didn’t like, I focused on the good things my practice gave me: skills, knowledge, experience, contacts, ideas, and most of all, time to start the next phase of my life.

Life is too short to do things you don’t enjoy. Life is supposed to be fun.

As you plan this year and beyond, make sure you’re planning to do something you love. Even if you don’t achieve the financial trappings of success, you’ll be happy. And that’s the real measure of success.

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Filed Under: Career satisfaction Tagged With:

Hard work: what is it and why is it important?

September 16, 2014 by
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Everyone and their brother says that hard work is a key to success. But can someone tell me what hard work means and why it is important?

Is hard work defined by effort or number of hours worked? If you aren’t exhausted at the end of the day, does that mean you can’t be successful? If you are successful anyway, does this mean you don’t deserve it?

Does hard work mean doing things you don’t like or aren’t good at? What if certain things come easily to you? What if you love your work? Do those not count?

Does hard work mean persistence? Does it mean continuing to do things that aren’t working? So we can never admit defeat and try something else? We can’t get help?

Hard work, eh? Does it mean taking work home with you every night? Missing your kid’s soccer games or piano recitals and feeling bad about it? Does hard work mean pain, regret, and sacrifice?

I don’t know what it means. Or why it’s important.

What’s wrong with working smart instead of working hard? What’s wrong with getting lucky, having the right connections, or even marrying the right person?

Wait, I get it. Hard work is for those who aren’t naturally skilled, don’t know how to work smart, and never seem to have any luck. It’s a fail safe. When nothing else works, work hard.

Whatever that means.

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Filed Under: Career satisfaction, Inspiration, Personal development, success Tagged With: ,

What does “hard work” mean to you?

August 12, 2013 by
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One day early in my career I was looking for new office space. I found myself looking at a nice space in Beverly Hills that had been recently leased by some young turks (small “t”). They had taken a bit more space than they needed and were looking for a sub-tenant to take over one of the offices.

As he was taking me on a tour, the turk explained to me how he and his partners conducted business. He said, “we work hard and we play hard”. Even though I was going to be a tenant, not a partner or employee, I got the feeling he wanted to see if I was a good fit.

He didn’t elaborate but something told me I wasn’t a good fit. I don’t know what “playing hard” meant to them but I’m pretty sure it didn’t mean they played a lot of chess. Don’t laugh. I like playing chess. A lot.

Anyway, this morning, when I was in the rain room, I recalled this exchange and thought I would ask what you think about this whole work vs. play business.

Here’s my take on it.

To me, work means doing things you don’t want to do. Play means the opposite. My entire method of operation is to try to do as much of what I want to do and as little of everything else.

In other words, my ideal would be no work and all play.

That doesn’t mean goofing off. It doesn’t mean the absence of accomplishment.

It means eliminating or doing less of the things I don’t like or am not good at. I do that by delegating those tasks to someone else or finding creative ways to run my business and personal affairs so as to avoid or minimize them.

We weren’t put here to endure, we were put here to enjoy. There is no virtue in hard work for hard work’s sake.

Anyway, what do you think? How do you define work and play? And do you work hard and play hard or, like me, do your best to enjoy the journey? Let me know in the comments.

By the way, when I called back the next day to ask if I could take another look at the office, the turk told me they had rented it. I was pretty sure that was not true. I think they discriminated against me because I wasn’t cool. I don’t know what gave me away. It couldn’t have been my fez because fezzes are cool.

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Filed Under: Law office management, Personal development, Productivity, success Tagged With: , ,