Seriously, It Takes Hard Work

The modern world is in a crisis. Everywhere we look, we’ve become used to things continuing forever. Our lives moved along in an almost endless flow, like a stream upon the winter melt. But we forget that everything in life has ebbs and flow which have to be considered when moving forward. We try to sidestep the ebbs and glide with the flows. But it won’t always work like that. Because sometimes, we can come across a torrential flow that we have to work against, or maybe no flow at all which requires just as much work. Without the hard work, well, the results just aren’t all that memorable.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Let’s take surfing as an example: You see the perfect wave beginning to form in the distance but will you reach it in time? You have to paddle out there as quickly as possible and position yourself at the perfect point so that you can reap the reward of the ultimate ride. Miss the opportunity, and you’re just floating on fiberglass like an ice cube. But if you did everything just so, you might just get lucky. Though once it’s over, you’re back at the starting point all over again. How much you love the reward dictates how dedicated you are to the pursuit. And it all boils down to what you’re willing to put into it.

Same goes with every task we go against out there. Right now, we’re in an amazing period of time with technology. We’ve been inventing until the cows come home. And each time we reach a threshold that seems insurmountable, we have to remember why we’re really doing this. Like always, we make up laws that can logically dictate how something should work. We think that we’ve got the whole world figured out with that logic so that we can redesign anything to make it work in a new way. But you know that it’s never that easy or straightforward in life. There’s always going to be a wave that simply peters out just when you’re ready to go for a ride. That’s when it’s time for a creative approach to solving your problem.

And therein lies the crux of the problem: Redesigning or redoing is just a cheap copy in many cases. Those things that mean the most to us are unique and precious, even if it’s more than one but less than a few. They’re innovative because they’ve never been thought of in quite that way before. And that takes hard work that continues way past when even the cows are fast asleep.

We’ve been spoiled for a very long time when we see the successes that come from taking the easy route. Redesign something, do it cheaply, and to hell with reducing our own value. Frankly, if everything came easy then we would never be where we are today. We wouldn’t have reached the stars, and we wouldn’t have investigated the depths and wonders of our own world.

I don’t know about you, but that’s just boring. I want to feel like the Wright Brothers must have felt when they left the ground for the first time. Or how those first sailors must have felt upon sensing a new world right at the tips of their vision after months at sea. Freedom comes when we work for it, and don’t simply accept that it’ll always be there. Because it won’t just sit there waiting patiently for you. It’ll make you fight for it. All good things do.

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About Carolyn

I'm the creator of this site. A technical communicator who is now spreading her wings in the creative world. It'll be baby steps, but I'll be offering up my own creations to you as time goes on.
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