I feel it’s important to teach young children the value of hard work. At first, an hour of work may seem grueling to them. Then after doing it for some time, they have no problem and can work for a longer period of time. Perhaps instead of an hour, they work for 3 or 4 hours. As they get older, and into their late teenage years, an 8 hour day is not uncommon. Beyond that, it is important to teach that it is better to work smarter, rather than work harder. Maybe there is a way to get a 4 hour task done in 2 hours. Why not? It’s efficient and it saves time.
With all that in mind, the working hard part is still important. It’s important to always have that in you. It’s important to be able to physically push yourself longer than normal, when the need arises. No matter how well you plan, there will always be unforeseen things that happen. Can you push through those things? Do you know in your mind that pulling an all-nighter is possible, and can you feel confident to do it when the time arises? Working smart is always better, but always have it in you to push through when it is required.
PS – The inspiration for this post came from thinking back to a print project that my shop took in for an attorney. We asked for 3 days, but ended up only having 24 hours at most. It was important, and it needed to get done. We were the only one’s at this point that could help. It was a big project and we promised to finish it on time for the court appointment. I didn’t have the staff that night, and it was just one employee and myself after hours. We pushed through the day with our staff, and then after hours completed the order by 6 am. I personally worked a 21 hour day. Of course, this isn’t the ideal situation. Though, what I was most proud of was that I knew I could get through it, because I knew I had it in me.