Hard Work

Life is difficult. It's a universal truth yet a truth that is universally denied by many. If it's accepted as a truth, then we would not be angry, sad or fearful of life. Indeed, we would be happier because we would not know the word "difficult".

But the fact is -- we don't want to accept that life SHOULD be and IS difficult. No, we want it to be easy. We want days without strives, conflicts, heartaches and pains. In general, we want more smiles, laughs, ease and reliefs. We want money without toils. We continually wish for more wealth minus harder-work. OR, and this is also a fact, not a pleasant fact but still a fact - we continually look for someone to make our lives easier.

Note: Here I wish to establish that this article preclude heir, heiress and any that falls into similar category. No doubt they too have worries, fears, etc but I wish to focus on work vs $$$. And I'm focusing on the average income family. Now where were we ....

It's human nature to want an easy life. In fact, we were programmed since childhood to want an easy life. Lets look at facts. When we were babes, our parents took care of our every need - our soiled clothes were changed without us lifting a finger and we were carried around everywhere. We only need to open our mouth and wail and we'd get fed. True? As kids, our parents prepared everything for us -- meals on the table, clothes in the closet, transport to desired destinations, etc. Worries? Nah.

It's not surprising then that as adults we find it hard to accept that there are no ready meals, LV bags and BMW in the garage without hard work. So why do we avoid hard work when hard work will result in our hearts' desires?

The answer is instant gratification. We want instant gratification. No delay. No postponement. No extra effort. Uh huh. We want it and we want it now. ASAP. Pronto. We don't want to work nine to five, 5-day a week and get salary only at the end of the month. If we want to watch TV, we want to watch now. We don't want to wait until the end of a work day. If we don't want to work, we don't want to work today, tomorrow and next week. We can't wait until we have accumulated sufficient funds to retire upon. That'll take too long (probably forever). We want it now. We want to be able to have teas with our girlfriends and gossips all afternoon long. We don't want to wait until weekend. We want to shop. We don't want to wait until month end.

Instant gratification. Is there a remedy? Yes - DISCIPLINE. Oh no. Groan. Double groan. The much hated and feared word. Discipline. Discipline equals delayed gratification. How does one goes about acquiring discipline? Think. Think. Think. Besides joining the SEAL, navy or police force where discipline is drummed into you? Think. Think. Think. Arggghhh... this is too hard. I'm gonna get an ice cream now. Chow. Instant gratification, again