It’s OK to Try Hard

School teaches you many lessons. Some of them you forget, most of them you don’t understand, and certain learnings would be best left forgotten. When I was at school, I learnt that it isn’t cool to try hard. This is one of the worst lessons I have ever been taught.

School is easy – I don’t mean academically or socially – I mean that you won’t get fired for underperforming. It’s OK to ‘do your best.’ The truth is that most of us do not do our best at all. I know that I am guilty of this. In the English school system – the only one that I was part of – we are taught that it is the taking part that counts. You go through your whole life (while underperforming) thinking, ‘Wow, I’m doing pretty great at this life thing,’ whining at people who try to control us (parents and teachers) then boom, you leave school and the real world comes and slaps you round the face with a large, dead fish. When you leave school, you are no longer being coddled by people who will put up with you because they have to. And that can be hard to adjust to.

It is hard to break the conditioning of school, the conditioning that says ‘don’t be one of those people who tries too hard.’ But the truth is that we only get somewhere in life if we try hard. All those people you see on television, in movies, that you read about, that you follow on Instagram, anyone that you think has a great story, they have all tried hard. And one way or another, they have probably been lucky. But they only got lucky because they tried hard in the first place and even then, sometimes trying hard just isn’t enough. You have to try hard, work smart (whatever that ‘work’ entails), and only then do you get lucky.

Forget that trying hard wasn’t (isn’t) cool at school and do everything you can to pursue your passion because one day it will be the ‘try-ers’ that make it in life – and that makes them pretty cool (whatever that means).

Good luck – you’ll earn it.

By | 2015-10-08T16:02:02+00:00 October 8th, 2015|Thoughts and Inspiration|2 Comments

2 Comments

  1. Piyush 15/10/2015 at 11:16 - Reply

    Hi , Everybody

    I am in deep trouble due to my mistake and now i am afraid to face it, because if i tell them (Employer), they can do anything with me . Now i want to run away from my home but i am tense about my parents and also i have not any plan ,no money, what to do and where to go. I don’t want to tell anybody where i am after run away. I live in India .I have learnt so many things from my mistake.now i want to change my life and become a successful man .I am a Accounts Executive in a company and passionate about travelling . I love to help people and want to do something for my better country . I want to visit all over India without money , shelter & family with earn some money for my family . Is this possible in country like India

    Thanks

    • Jamie 22/10/2015 at 00:36 - Reply

      Piyush, I am sorry to hear of your dilemma. There is so much that can be achieved in life when you put your mind to it and work hard. I have never been to India, but I wish you the best of luck and hope that everything works out more than well.

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