Working Hard for the Money . . .

Last night while putting one of the daughters to bed I tried something new. Instead of just rattling off the standard “I love you and I’m proud of you,” I let her know something tangible that I really was proud of. So I said, “I love you and I’m proud of how hard you work at gymnastics and at school.” I did this because she does work hard; and because I read in a book that it’s a good thing to do. She replied with a genuine “Thank you, Daddy!” (Wow, this book crap really works!); and then followed up with, “Daddy, is there anything that you ever work hard at?”

Body Blow! Body Blow! Knock Him Out!

Jimminy Christmas, I just got cold-cocked. It would be cool if somehow my work ethic made the question ironic rather than legitimate. It’s not that I’m a total slacker. I show up for work and tend to get decent performance reviews. In college I tended to show up for class and I got good grades. But with me it’s always the game of “what’s the smallest amount of work I can do and still get a respectable result.” I have two college degrees thanks, in large part, to Cliff’s Notes and my ability to make friends with grad assistants. In truth, this has carried me through a lot. Be friendly and funny and you can pretty much coast (except when it comes to making time with the ladies, not much luck there. Do they make a Cliff’s Notes version of how to do that?).

But here’s the problem, the really interesting people in life aren't the ones that “coast.” It’s those who work hard to be at the top of their game and still seem "balanced" that I admire. I want to be that kind of person. I want to show amazing commitment and tenacity. I want to dive into something whole-assed for once. I once heard someone quote Dan Millman as saying that "discipline leads to excellence, and excellence leads to freedom" (although my attempts to find the exact quote on the Google turned up fruitless, so it may have just been from an old Ziggy cartoon). Discipline, excellence, and freedom. The last two sound freaking awesome! The first one sounds suspiciously like work.