I would like to share a story from Don Miguel Ruiz, a medical surgeon and one of my best authors, author of one of my best books, ‘The Four Agreements‘.
One man wanted to free himself from his suffering and pain so he went to his mentor, a Guru, for help.
He asked, “Guru, if I meditate four hours a day, how long will it take me to remove my suffering and pain?”
The Guru looked at him and replied, “If you meditate four hours a day, probably, you will remove your suffering and pain in ten years.”
Bringing his hard working mentality, the man said again, “Oh, Guru, what if I meditate eight hours a day, how long will it take me to remove my suffering and pain?”
Guru looked at him and said, “If you meditate eight hours a day, perhaps you will remove your suffering and pain in twenty years.”
“But why will it take me longer if I meditate more?” the man asked again.
Guru replied, “You are not here to sacrifice your joy, your family, your relationship, and your life.
You are here to live freely, to be happy, and to love the way you are; then only you will be free from suffering and pain.”
The core lesson I got: If we can do our best in two hours, but we spend five hours instead, we only grow tired and frustrated, we miss the whole point of love and life, and we won’t enjoy our life.
Don’t be that person.
Do your best and then only you can live freely, you can love, you can be happy, and you always grow.
This is the key difference between hard worker and smart worker.
“Regular meditation is a key tool for smart work because it is the only way to make our brain healthy and innovative.”
Everything is moving faster than ever in our lives.
We are living in nanoseconds now, not in days, weeks, months, and years.
Fast progress in technology and better understanding of the human body and mind has changed the way we think about work in the current society.
If only hard work is the weapon to succeed then coal miners, farmers, and construction workers would be the most successful people in the world.
Many hard working people in many areas are short of fame, recognition, and status because they completely forget or ignore to work smartly. H. Jackson Brown, author of ‘Life’s Little Instruction Book‘ said “Don’t work for recognition, but do work worthy of recognition”.
I have read that many smart and successful people do meditation regularly but hard working people don’t get time to do meditation, because they are too busy and don’t have time to do so.
Research shows that regular meditation is a key tool for smart work because it is the only way to make our brain healthy and innovative.
Overall exercise makes our body healthy but meditation does the same for the brain.
Needless to say, today’s world is run by the brain, especially the healthy brain.
I told to one of my colleagues that Tony Robbins, author and life coach does one to two hour mediation everyday.
She immediately replied, “Oh whoa, I wish I had such free time. I don’t have free time, I’m always on schedule and very busy.”
“Smart working people spend a lot of time alone, they spend a lot of time thinking and wandering.”
After knowing the fact that smart working people bring creativity by meditation and hard working people just don’t get time for meditation, I also decided to learn this mind exercise habit.
I arranged for meditation class twice a week, an hour a session.
In my first class, my meditation instructor said, “Sit down in a cross-legged position on the floor and close your eyes for sixty seconds.”
I obeyed his instruction and did the same.
I asked, “What should I do after closing my eyes?”
He replied, “Nothing, just relax, remain calm.”
Probably after ten seconds I thought that meditation is the most annoying and disturbing thing ever I am learning in my life.
After I closed my eyes, innumerable things came to my mind: my stove at home, did I turn it off?
My office assignment which I haven’t finished yet, the deadline is looming.
My sister in Cincinnati is sick, I have to visit her.
I shouldn’t be late for tonight’s dinner with my wife.
These are only some glimpses of so many other things that came in my mind.
Oh my god, how do people do mediation for hours and hours? How does Dalai Lama, the spiritual leader, meditate for five hours a day?
After sixty seconds, my instructor said, “How did you feel?”
I said, “Terrible, I was inside my mental jail, in sixty seconds with my closed eyes I recall more things than in a month with my open eyes.”
My teacher said, “You just started your mental motion, you should learn continuously to be in motion until an amazing force stops you and you become mentally stationary.”
“Motion doesn’t give you anything, you get something only when you stop motion”, he added.
The real truth is many smart people spend time on meditation to make their mind empty so that they can plant whatever they want.
Meditation makes their empty mind a more fertile ground where they can plant the seeds of better ideas, supreme thoughts, and positive vibrations.
Thich Nhat Hanh, Zen Buddhist teacher and author of ‘No Mud, No Lotus‘ said, “Meditation grows the seeds of love, affection, and care in mind.”
There is a huge difference between smart working people and hard working people in many aspects.
Consistent regular meditation is just one of many of those tools.
Smart working people are balanced people, they know the key points to get work done, they focus a lot on their health, diet, and relationship.
Quite amazingly, they spend a lot of time alone.
They spend a lot of time thinking and wandering.
Don Miguel Ruiz, author of ‘The Four Agreements‘ says “Smart working people change from moment to moment, they always think that it makes a huge difference when you are healthy, not sick.”
“Hard work becomes smart work when we tweak the mind to get the best of the best in everything.”
Relatively hard working people don’t care about healthy habits, they become sick pretty quick.
Mostly they are haphazard and have no sense of balance on various aspects of life because they have poor understanding of how the brain actually works effectively.
They rarely read books outside of their profession.
Most of the time they have ready made answers, “I don’t have time to read outside books.”
They are poor at making connections between different dots of life in one pattern, because they see the flow of life only in one direction. Steve Jobs, the cofounder of Apple said, “You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backward”.
Hard working people try too hard to do more than their best, they spend more energy than is needed and in the end their best doesn’t become enough.
When they overdo, they deplete their body and health and go against both, and it will take them longer to accomplish their goals.
When I first came to the USA, more than a decade ago, I did a low paid hourly job for some time to survive.
I was attending school as well as working in a cafeteria.
I was unable to afford a new car so I was driving a very old car.
One day my car broke down on the way to work and I took it to the workshop to fix it.
The mechanic examined it and said it costs four hundred dollars to fix the car.
He said, “The equipment costs seventy five dollars and three hundred dollars is for labor plus tax.”
He added, “You can pick up your car tomorrow at noon.”
I said,” “If it takes only two hours then why are you charging me three hundred dollars?”
He replied, “Sir, I am charging you not only for two hours but also my nine years of hard work: five years auto engineering and four years of internship.”
I didn’t say anything, I remained silent but that statement opened my inner eyes.
Actually, the first time in my life I understood the price of something which I never realized before.
I also understood why I pay three hundred dollars to my primary care physician for a thirty minutes health check up in the clinic.
I widely opened my brain too and told him to fix my car because I had no alternative.
I was about to leave, I asked him again, “Could you fix my car today so that I can pick it up in the evening?”
He replied, “Sir, I was a very hard working person before but I suffered a lot. Believe me. I owned this workshop after many years of hard work. I started as a cleaning boy in a car dealer shop many years ago.”
“Recently I am learning smart work instead of hard work. My productivity and health has gone up pretty quickly,” he further added.
He said, “I might finish your work today by working a little longer but my wife wouldn’t be happy at home if I become late for dinner because we have invited our niece for dinner tonight.”
I felt how courageous and sincere this person is.
He was communicating with me as clearly as he could to avoid misunderstandings, sadness, and drama.
He was speaking with integrity and honesty.
He was saying only what he meant and using his words in the direction of truth.
In any circumstance, hard work does not mean we should constantly work all the time.
Naturally, our body and mind is not designed for it.
But hard work should be in such a way that our mind should constantly enjoy and explore the work.
Hard work becomes smart work when we tweak the mind to get the best of the best in everything.
James Clear, habit expert and the author of iconic book on habit formation ‘Atomic Habits‘, says “Smart working people stick to their best for any positive atomic habit, most importantly, they avoid self-judgement, self abuse, and regret.”
Conclusion
In a lot of cases, hardworking people fall in the trap of self-judgement, self-abuse, and regret.
Personally, I have also experienced these types of people in my life directly or indirectly.
They often exhibit unhygienic, nerdy, and pompous behavior around them.
I showed a car mechanic’s transformation from a hard worker to a smart worker as a representation.
He was living his life with blossom as a smart guy.
Most importantly, he was productive, he was giving himself to his family, to his community, to everything.
He was genuine and happy, he was taking responsibility for his actions, but he wasn’t judging or blaming himself.
I learned from him: in any condition, do the best as long as you are happy and healthy, no more and no less.
Learn how to change your best over time for physical, mental, and spiritual well being.
It’s true that hard work is required everywhere but let’s not forget to work smartly.
Smart work is a choice, and so is the hard work. – Shawn Achor, a psychologist and author of ‘The Happiness Advantage‘, said “Raise your positivity in the present and your brain experiences a happiness advantage because happiness inspires productivity.” Achor’s TedTalk ‘The happy secret to better work‘ is worth watching.
Yam Timsina, PhD, writes primarily on health basics, scientific progress, social upliftment, and value creation.
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