An Ideal Mentality: the Lazy Hard Worker

There is an illusive concept where it seems that the more work we are willing to put, the more reward we are going to get, the more celebrated it is, the more sought after we become.

“No pain, no gain”

“I worked so hard for this”

Indeed, hard work is important. It is the attitude that can determine winners amongst losers. The driving force that can take practice and trump talent. The fundamental building block to discipline and character.

This absolutely is the case.

Usain Bolt ran 9.58 seconds in 2009, setting a new WR — an accumulation of years and decades of dedicated hard work.

Arnold Schwarzenegger, a success magnet in bodybuilding, acting, politics, business, filmmaking, and more. Spent countless hours honing his craft every day, for years at a time, and continuously so over decades.

Oftentimes, success is shown and it is easy to attribute it to good luck, genetics, environment, financial backing… or likely success building on success.

Yes, all of these things may make it easier. But it is not the core ingredient for success. The rice/pasta/bread of the successful dish is hard work. Unrelenting, unforgiving. An absolute obsession with hard work.

I mean, take a look at David Goggins. An absolute beast in physical and mental will.

Hard work is the foundation. However, it is the foundation that is not and doesn’t have to be seen. It is the bottom of the iceberg.

Absolutely crucial. More than anything. Without it the iceberg is nothing.

Yet, is this what people really want?

The saying goes, oh that’s only the tip of the iceberg. Now, why is that? Because naturally, we gravitate towards the tip. We react to what we see. Neglect the unseen. We look at the top and just want to instantly get there.

Is it all that incorrect though? Acknowledging the unseen, is it wrong to focus on the results?

Think about it this way.

If a doctor can give you a high five to cure your infection instantly. Without the decades of schooling and an absurd amount of education debt. Would you see her?

If an 8-year-old athlete could break Usain Bolt’s record without practice and fly past in 9.3 seconds, would you go see the race?

If a lawyer can not go to court and settle the case in your desired outcome, without endless nights of reviewing materials and going back and forth with the opposing party, would you prefer that?

Yes, yes, and yes!

We want results.

Ignoring the fantasy aspect, and how they’re too good to be true, or what’s the catch, the fact remains: we are results-driven. Almost no one wants to see the hard work behind the result. So long as the process was legal, true, and generally assumed hard work, the process is less important as the result for the audience.

The movie theaters do not show 1000 hour long movies depicting the cuts, outtakes, the make-up, the filmmaking, the editing, the CGI. No, instead we see the end result.

Even when we do see the bloopers or the process… it’s been condensed!

So what’s the point?

The hard work piece is about the “doer”. The person performing the craft, the individual executing the task.

The results-oriented piece is about the audience, the observer, the “receiver”. The one who stands to gain from the action. Be it, entertainment from watching a show, actual monetary value from profits, or safety and protection from construction.

At its core, both a “doer” and “receiver” exist and are equally important. They are just different roles. One person does something, another person receives something.

Sometimes, the “doer” and “receiver” can be the same person. Imagine, working out to stay healthy and possibly even see the 6-pack. Well, the process of working out is “doing”. After months and years of hard work, a chiseled sculpture gradually takes shape and begins “receiving” the satisfaction of having achieved that goal.

As a “doer”, it is critical to embrace and enjoy the process, the blood, sweat, and tears. Hard work is and will remain very important.

As a “doer”, do not get caught up in the “receiver” mentality, where everything seems great, but ignores all the steps to get there. Aka:

• Oh, I saw a video of a guy doing one-arm pull-ups, let me go try that now! (Ending up with 5 months of physical therapy after straining the elbow tendons on the first try)
• Wow, being a millionaire would be great. I want that lifestyle! (Resulting in more debt by living in the target lifestyle without taking the time to build up the financial backing)

That is the trap of a “doer” acting like a “receiver”.

(Oddly enough, there is also another mistake of a “receiver” acting like a “doer”. But for that’s a topic for another day)

Now, not falling into the trap of “doer” acting like a “receiver” is not enough. That secures hard work and is an ingredient to yield results, but it does not always warrant results.

See, hard work is the foundation and the foundation determines the results. How an iceberg’s bottom is shaped will affect how the tip is shaped and how high it can go.

The fine and tricky balance is in not getting lost in the “doer” mentality when “doing”. Hard work alone doesn’t work. It is strategic hard work. Planned and thoughtful hard work.

The art of the Lazy Hard Worker is to constantly act as a “doer” thinking like a “receiver”.

In the workplace, it’s about understanding the want and ask of the director. Not just executing blindly without thought.

If a manager says at 6pm that we need to comb through each row of these 3500 excel items and highlight all the same values, and matching those duplicates with a separate mapping file by tomorrow 9am…

It’s should not just be a thoughtless knee-jerk reaction: okay, no sleep it is. Sleeves rolled up, coffee prepared, and cranking time. Highlight row, down arrow, highlight row, down arrow, oh duplicate! Document. Highlight row, down arrow, highlight row, down arrow… ad nauseam.

It should be deciphering and understanding that the ask is to map the duplicate values with the given key values. It is knowing that the end goal is to then provide a report to the client showing the unique duplicates. It is anticipating that this will then become a repeated task on a weekly basis. It is recognizing that being able to visualize these results in an interactive manner may result in continued client work, and thus revenue for the company.

That is thinking like a “receiver”. Having thought through all this, then perhaps the action plan becomes different. Instead of following the instructions to the T, you are able to identify the plan of action needed to provide the results.

Perhaps it’s doing conditional formatting in Excel, to auto-identify the duplicates, and create a chart in a separate tab.

Perhaps it’s loading the data to a workflow solution that cleanses the values and joins the unique keys, then outputs only the duplicates.

Perhaps it’s taking that output and then linking it with an interactive visualization tool and creating a dashboard that updates in real-time based on the data feed.

In 3 hours, you may then have a repeatable process that provides sustainable impact with a WOW factor. (Notice how these went above and beyond and still required dedication and commitment? It’s still inviting the hard work, but channeling it for impact.)

Alternatively, had you gone with the line by line review, you may have been at 489 out of 3500 lines of manual review. Tearing up in exhaustion. Frustrated at the ask. Ready to quit in maybe 300 more lines of review.

In the end, the work gets done better and faster — the boss is happy, you are happy.

Think like a “receiver”, work as a “doer”. That is the philosophy of the Lazy Hard Worker.

Originally published at https://www.theofficecrashcourse.com on May 13, 2020.