Hard work is the first step to success

I don’t have much experience with laziness. Not my own, anyway. Don’t even know why I’m blogging about it. It just came to mind. (Actually, I do know why, just not saying.)

I find lazy people annoy me greatly. I believe that hard work is the first step to success, no matter what the endeavor.

When I receive a compliment about one of my paintings, I can get a little annoyed if people think it’s just talent. It’s some of that but it’s a lot more a case of hard work and study. I’m sure successful singers and novelists feel the same way. Assuming someone is successful in their particular field just because they are talented, diminishes all the years of hard work.

I am very tolerant of most things, but laziness is not one of them. Maybe it’s because I come from hard-working parents and grandparents. Maybe it’s because I know that everything my husband and I have is because of plain ole’ hard work.

Our children are doing well. Hard work in school when others were playing. Giving up things. Not having all the “toys” and “name-brand” things other young adults had until hey could afford them.

My mother and father didn’t even graduate high school and yet they did very well. Again, hard work. Giving up things. Doing without.

It’s my experience that lazy people often take advantage of other people’s work ethic. We do people no favors when we do things for them all the time. And lazy people often complain when they don’t have what other’s have even though their own laziness is the cause.  

But we can be lazy in other areas as well.

Our spiritual life, for example. We expect God to bless our plans even when we ignore Him in the process. Taking time to pray is too much of an effort. Taking time to study our Bible is way too much work.

We can be lazy about our appearance. After all, we’re just running an errand.

We can be lazy about our relationships. We can take them for granted. We don’t want to invest the time it takes.

We can even be lazy in our personal lives if we never take time to reflect and grow.

I’m not going to define what “lazy” is because I think we all recognize laziness when we see it. And I’m not talking about occasional laziness. We all have days we are not as productive. When I say lazy, I’m thinking about chronic laziness.

The Bible has a lot to say about laziness. Proverbs ???? says

(Laziness has nothing to do with economic status or level of education. Laziness, like depression, knows no boundaries.

My grandmother was very poor.  She never owned her own home. She never owned a car. She never went to a movie. She grew all her own food and killed her own chickens, etc. You get the picture.  Yet, even in her nineties, her yard was well-manicured and her house immaculate. She didn’t have a lazy bone in her body.

On the other hand, I’ve known some wealthy, well-educated people who were very lazy. I always wondered how they could be lazy and yet be successful. Their homes were dirty; their yards were unkempt)

I don’t think laziness bothered me in the past as much as it does now. Now it seems that lazy and “entitled” are synonymous. People used to take more responsibility for their actions, now they expect someone else to pull them up and out of their messes. Their lack of success is always someone else’s fault. It’s nothing more than a grown-up temper tantrum.

But having said all this I want to add that life doesn’t always have to be a “to do” list.  Some days we absolutely should choose laziness. It’s good to give ourselves a break. I’m thankful for the few days when I choose laziness, emphasis on the”choose”.

If you’re struggling with laziness, here’s a great saying that someone I know had posted on the walls of their workshop:

“Doing does it.” It’s really that simple. Just get moving and get ‘er done.

God bless and I hope you have a good day.