Work it, Make it, Do it, Makes us, Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger!

Did the title make you think of Daft Punk or Kanye West?

Anyways, we are always told that hard work will get us there. Perhaps this is to motivate us to level the playing field against the inequities that exist in society or perhaps this just makes a good refrigerator magnet. However, I believe that this phrase is much more related to our idea of control. In a world and life where there is a lot of uncertainty, it can be frightening to move forward when we feel we do not control our lives. Understanding that it is impossible to control everything, it becomes easy to adopt the mindset that hard work, or at least trying your best (however you measure that), is a method to maximize your control over outcomes and therefore feel satisfied with whatever the results are because you exerted the most control you possibly could’ve.

This is a powerful mindset and one that has driven many to varying levels of success in many different endeavors. However, every superpower has its weaknesses. While working hard can make us feel that we are able to control our outcomes to the best of our abilities, it can also often give us an overestimation of how much control we actually have. This can lead us to be disappointed by outcomes when we try our hardest and things do not meet our expectations. We fail to appreciate other factors such as luck, timing, or even the actions of others around us. It ignores other values such as patience or empathy. We believe that if we work hard, things will work out, but that is clearly not always the case whether it be in the office, our hobbies, or even our relationships. I learned this the hard way when I lost an important person in my life even though I thought I was trying my hardest. Naively, I applied the same mentality I did when I played sports or studied (if I even did) for a test. Just work harder. It was important to work hard towards building a successful relationship but that isn’t everything.

Therefore, I would like to add to the phrase that nothing replaces hard work.

Nothing replaces hard work. But hard work does not replace everything.