Nothing Wrong With A Little Hard Work

I am a firm believer in working hard and that you get out of life what you put into it. I was out on a run yesterday (Sunday) and noticed three children raking leaves. As I got closer I notice that these children were not working on the same lawn. The first house I came to had a young boy about 8 years old and what I presume was his sister who looked to be about 10 years old. The two off them were armed with rakes and were busy working their piles of leaves to the curb. As I watched I thought nice job. Get out there early, work hard and get it done. When I was given these types of jobs as a youngster I would look at the work I had do and push through it as fast as I could while doing a good job and then get on with my day. The third child was working on the lawn next door was not armed with a rake. He was armed with a leaf blower. This was not just any old leaf blow. This was a heavy duty back pack blower. The kind I used when I worked for a commercial landscaper. This thing could knock a grown man down. Well, maybe not but it is bad ass! He was ripping through the leaves and making short work of his chore. I did not look at this and say to myself, nice work. It thought how does this teach him anything other than to take the path of least resistance. The path of least resistance doesn't lead anywhere I want to go. At the end of the path of least resistance you will not find any reward that you fought hard to earn. You will find nothing but mediocrity at best. When you have to work hard and suffer physically or mentally you have a greater sense of accomplishment once you have achieved your goal and I can assure you that the goals you reach will be much greater than the goals of those who chose to take the path of least resistance.

I think the youth of America is looking for the easiest way to complete any task that is put in front of them. Sometimes that is the right thing to do but I think we need to help our children understand what it means to feel the satisfaction of working hard to complete a task. Don't send them out to rake leaves with a leaf blower. Maybe if we put a rake in their hands fewer of them would be over weight. My daughter is only a year old so this is just my opinion at this time but I know when the time comes she will be picking up a rack and helping out in a way that teaches her that hard work has many rewards.

Please let me know your thoughts on this subject.