Over the course of the weekend, I watched a particular football match where one of the teams had about 75% ball possession, but ended up losing the match even after creating amazing chances that never resulted into goals. As the match was about to end, my friend tapped me and said "see, they had many attempts to score, but attempts do not count, only the real goals do." They played so well but lost out to a team that had about 25% ball possession. This made me to understand that in life, it is only the result that gets the reward, so you should focus more on how to get the result than how hard you have tried.
When people are result-oriented and their mind centered in getting the required outcome, they will not waste their time in "beating around the bush." If after you have toiled and you have nothing to show for it, then there is nothing to substantiate your labour. It is not the number of hours you put into work that counts, nor the hardness of the work you did that matters but the evidence you have - the result. This is why, smart work will always be preferred over hard work. If there is an easier and better way to get what you are about to do done, then nothing stops you from using it. After all, there is not trophy for the best hardworker but the reward goes to the result.
If, for example, you want to get to the top floor of a 15 storey building and you decide to take the stairs, it will definitely be tiring and exhausting. But not just that, your speed will be reduced and you may not even get to the top floor at the required time. But if you go by the elevator or lift, you will not be doing any much work but yet, you will arrive at the result on record-time without feeling exhausted. If they were to reward the person that got to the top floor first, no one will consider the person that took the stairs even though he expended more energy and did more hard work, they will give the price to the person that took the elevator and got to the top floor first.
As much as working hard is good, but working smart is much better than it. Good a thing, in this era, there are lots of technological assistance that can enable smarter work to be performed with little efforts. Take for instance; as a farmer, if you want to cultivate a large piece of land and you are relying entirely on the manual digger and cutlass, you will spend so much time and energy, yet achieving very little. But if you get a tractor or a motorized cultivator, you will finish the land in less time without spending much energy. Just to remind you; it is not how hard or how long that counts, but what makes the difference is how well.
There was a time I went for an exam. It was an exam based on theory, so you have to express yourself in writing. When I entered, we were given answer sheets where we have to put down the answers. I was surprised that by the time I was about halfway through my answer sheet, a lot of students have already demanded for extra sheets. In my mind, I was thinking if it was the same thing that I was writing that they were writing too or if they had extra questions. I used just one answer sheet for my questions while some used two and even three. By the time the result came out, I was among the very few that had A in the course. This explains the fact that it is not how much or how plenty but how well.
It is true that it is the input that will determine how your output/outcome will be, but you have to be putting the work rightly and smartly to get the right output. You cannot be doing something in an obviously old way and expect a new result. If what you are doing has a better, easier, and smarter way of doing it, then you need to follow that way. After all, at the end, it is the result that will justify the process.
Thanks for reading
