# Do You Consider Yourself A Hard Worker?



## ArtMusic (Jan 5, 2013)

Let's be honest and answer this question: "do you consider yourself a hard worker?" Whether that be hard work to achieve your personal goals (whatever these might be), hard worker at work or study (i.e. quialification/income/recognition etc.) Or just your own defintion of what "hard work" means to you. Nothing more, nothing less. It's all personal, and feel free to share if you wish to. *For this reason, I have made this poll anonymous.*

The great Johann Sebastian Bach supposedly said: "I have had to work hard, anyone who works just as hard will get just as far". Or to something of that efffect.


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## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

There is a little bit of the slacker instinct in me, especially when I'm at home, but in my workplace I probably bust my bits off as hard, if not harder, than most people there. I'd be in category 1 for workplace and category 3/4 for other times so I'll hit the 2nd option as a compromise.


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## Blancrocher (Jul 6, 2013)

ArtMusic said:


> Let's be honest and answer this question: "do you consider yourself a hard worker?"


As a very active member of this forum, I don't think I can honestly say I work _that_ hard. In fact, I worry that the hard-working Bach would have disapproved of my highly distracting love of music! :lol:


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## deggial (Jan 20, 2013)

if the task is interesting or important according to me, yes, I am a hard worker. I enjoy a good challenge and there have been cases where I went so far out of my way to get the job done _to my standard_, most of my co-workers would think I was a bit nuts if they knew. That hard work paid off in the end, but I'm actually _not_ nuts and don't push myself to that kind of limit more than a handful of times a year. Equally I can be a slacker, especially when I don't like what I have to do or if I think it's stupid. Then I'll do as little as possible for the job to still be considered done and move on to a more interesting/important thing.


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## Jos (Oct 14, 2013)

I can work very, very hard ( was brought up in that kind of family ) but I choose not to......

Cheers,
Jos


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## Manxfeeder (Oct 19, 2010)

I work pretty hard. But I have occasional lapses, and I end up checking into TC.


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## Aramis (Mar 1, 2009)

Hard worker...? No, not really... but if you'll change ""hard" for "hardly", that's me.


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## ArtMusic (Jan 5, 2013)

I voted no, not a hard worker but could do more. There you go! I've fessup!


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## Ingélou (Feb 10, 2013)

I can work *extremely* hard - when I *need* to - or when I *want* to. In such circumstances I am *obsessive*, and *well-organised*. Examples include - passing exams; lesson preparation; learning New Testament Greek by myself for an AS Level in Religious Studies; practising my violin; clearing the garden in a property we'd just moved into; painting a room; getting the house ready for my mother's ninetieth birthday party; helping my mother put together a family memoir; sorting out books or cds.

*But* - I am *the laziest procrastinator on earth* when I hate a task or when there's no pressure to start it, let alone complete it. Examples include - daily housework; weeding the garden; ironing; tidying; mending clothes; taking jars to the bottle bank; matching up my pop sox...

For this reason I voted 'hard worker, but could do more'.


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## aleazk (Sep 30, 2011)

I work hard, since it's the only way to have any chance of success in this career (mathematical physics). The amount of material we have to know is ridiculously big.
But, still, I think I could work even harder. Actually, I always have that feeling, even when I'm actually working hard!. But it's helpful, since it encourages me to push my own limits. I feel that every time I succeeded at something was because of this.


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## Kieran (Aug 24, 2010)

If I'm stimulated, I'm like a dog with a bone. But if the task is dull to me, I'm like a dog on a hot sunny day. My natural inclination is to not go looking for work. I prefer to generate my own ideas and if they ain't coming then, meh!


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## tdc (Jan 17, 2011)

I'm like many others here in that I can work hard when I need to, and/or feel inspired to. I think working smart is an even greater virtue than working hard.


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## Huilunsoittaja (Apr 6, 2010)

Haha! If anyone is curious who is the only vote for "Yes, I am a hard worker" that is me, I don't mind not be anonymous. :lol:

No seriously, if I work any harder than I do right now, I am at risk for mental ill-health, possibly physical too. This semester is horribly busy. But I think next semester is looking a bit better.


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## Ondine (Aug 24, 2012)

No, I am not.

I learnt that where your natural talent is put into task, hard work does not happen; I learnt that. I know this sound odd for some people. Whatever. 

I have two passions in my life: teaching -not only in formal systems like the school with individual bench desks- but mainly at non formal systems like learning communities.

And research. I chose to become a free lance researcher. In that way, sometimes there are chances to copyright my methodologies and have royalties. Also I can hire my own staff whom develop -I suspect- the hard work.

Happily, I got this days a new contract from a private firm -aside from teaching- in order to develop a research project about cultural use of tropical forest resources. I decided to work with complex systems (bifurcations); a field I know well enough to having a smoothly work. 

I am not having hard work but a wonderful dedication in this new adventure; when this happens there is neither mental nor physical exhaustion but joy and a sense of fullness and ease.


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## Garlic (May 3, 2013)

I always do the minimum amount of work I can get away with doing. I'm not proud of it but there we are. I'm incapable of any kind of prolonged effort.


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## Ingélou (Feb 10, 2013)

Garlic said:


> I always do the minimum amount of work I can get away with doing. I'm not proud of it but there we are. I'm incapable of any kind of prolonged effort.


Maybe you've developed your intelligence, planning the minimum you can do; though there is that teacher's standby, 'The lazy boy works hardest in the end', if you waste your energy trying to avoid a task which in the end you can't.

Scott Skinner (Scottish fiddler & composer of traditional airs) once said: '*Talent* does what it can; *genius* does what it must.' 
To which I rejoin: '*Hobby* does what it can get away with!'


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## mstar (Aug 14, 2013)

Being a perfectionist, when anxiety allows I NEED TO WORK HARDER because if I am not working tirelessly perfect then I am on the track to being terrible.


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## Ingélou (Feb 10, 2013)

Don't work yourself into a fret, mstar, though, please...
Set the bar a little lower sometimes, and have fun!


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## kv466 (May 18, 2011)

I like to be a very efficient worker and for that one must not necessarily work hard.


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## Blancrocher (Jul 6, 2013)

Huilunsoittaja said:


> Haha! If anyone is curious who is the only vote for "Yes, I am a hard worker" that is me, I don't mind not be anonymous. :lol:
> 
> No seriously, if I work any harder than I do right now, I am at risk for mental ill-health, possibly physical too. This semester is horribly busy. But I think next semester is looking a bit better.


This is very tactless, Huilunsoittaja! By all means tell your employer how hard you work (like J.S. Bach did), but you should always play down your efforts when talking to friends.



> Being a perfectionist, when anxiety allows I NEED TO WORK HARDER because if I am not working tirelessly perfect then I am on the track to being terrible.


 And mstar! I'm truly appalled!

:lol:


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

Ondine said:


> No, I am not.
> 
> I learnt that where your natural talent is put into task, hard work does not happen; I learnt that. I know this sound odd for some people. Whatever.
> 
> ...


You've just given another classic example: If what you do engages you fully, you work fiendishly hard, but don't think of it as "Work" or, sigh, "A Job." It is almost as if _work_ and _job_ have become synonymous with those things we must / ought but do not care much about.

At the piano, from early childhood through while performing and teaching, work was about as doggedly complete as possible, and this remains the same when I'm composing... serious application to a degree where some friends might think me obsessive.

My new living quarters will have an apart small dedicated music room, which will then find me even more doing that work daily as others go to a job... this in my supposed 'retirement' years -- I think "retirement" for those who find what the do so engaging, is not a word that comes up as a thought, even.

The rest of the chores of life, the mundane, even those tasks very important for the mechanics of well-being, are all more in the realm of "chore," and they feel like it. The writing of a piece is a pleasure, no matter what first world agony / complaints I might be able to come up with, while the follow-through on paper work which ensures my personal welfare in retirement is an "aaaargh!" and gets put off as long as possible


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## aleazk (Sep 30, 2011)

There seems to be some kind of proposed dichotomy here between hard work and "smart" or "efficient" work.
In my experience, you can be smart, talented, efficient, whatever; but when there is a pile of books waiting for you in the desk, the knowledge simply is not going to magically flow to your brain if you don't sit and work hard...
Hard work and efficiency are not mutually exclusive things; instead, both are needed for achieving a maximum level in your learning.
When I think of "working hard", I think in doing a mental effort. Working hard is about learning a lot of things, but, also, thinking about these things in the process. So, for me, efficiency is included in my definition of working hard.


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde (Dec 2, 2011)

I work hard on the things I know will really help me in the future, I work hard on things I know very little about and would like to know more.....I am a slacker when it comes to other things.


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## tdc (Jan 17, 2011)

aleazk said:


> There seems to be some kind of proposed dichotomy here between hard work and "smart" or "efficient" work.
> In my experience, you can be smart, talented, efficient, whatever; but when there is a pile of books waiting for you in the desk, the knowledge simply is not going to magically flow to your brain if you don't sit and work hard...
> Hard work and efficiency are not mutually exclusive things; instead, both are needed for achieving a maximum level in your learning.
> When I think of "working hard", I think in doing a mental effort. Working hard is about learning a lot of things, but, also, thinking about these things in the process. So, for me, efficiency is included in my definition of working hard.


I think working smart minimizes the hard work though. For example it has been shown that by studying for small chunks at a time regularly on a subject students remember and retain more information than if they studied a longer time but crammed the learning into many hours the day before the exam. Its also been shown that the brain rapidly absorbs new information in about 20 minute chunks of time, after that maximum learning is achieved if either the student then takes a break before continuing, or switches to studying a different subject.

When physically working out more muscle mass is gained when days are taken off between work outs. If one was to work the same muscles seven days a week there is not sufficient time for the muscle tissue to heal between workouts.

Statistically the most successful people financially speaking in the world are not the most educated people in terms of achieving good grades in school, or in many cases even graduating. A big part of this is because learning about arguably the most important topic in achieving wealth - the financial system and how it works, is not taught in schools. There is a lot of evidence that shows that there was higher intelligence in the general population before our current schooling systems became mandatory, this is because schools most often use the least efficient methods of learning as their teaching methods ie - Reading books, hearing lectures etc. Students generally only retain 10-20% of the information that they've learned. People gain the maximum amount of learning through direct experience, or at least simulated experience these activities lead to closer to 90% memory retention.


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## aleazk (Sep 30, 2011)

tdc said:


> I think working smart minimizes the hard work though. For example it has been shown that by studying for small chunks at a time regularly on a subject students remember and retain more information than if they studied a longer time but crammed the learning into many hours the day before the exam. Its also been shown that the brain rapidly absorbs new information in about 20 minute chunks of time, after that maximum learning is achieved if either the student then takes a break before continuing, or switches to studying a different subject.


It also has been shown that these limits are flexible. You can improve your attention by working on it. 
And, in any case, I don't know what your answer has to do with my comment. I never made some kind of apology of studying the day before the exam or things like that. You seem to propose some idea that working hard is some kind of activity which consist in just absorbing the material in a completely inefficient and maniac way. That's cartoonish, and it's evidently not recommended.
As I said, I conceive hard work simply as perseverance and mental effort in understanding what you are doing.



tdc said:


> Statistically the most successful people financially speaking in the world are not the most educated people in terms of achieving good grades in school, or in many cases even graduating. A big part of this is because learning about arguably the most important topic in achieving wealth - the financial system and how it works, is not taught in schools. There is a lot of evidence that shows that there was higher intelligence in the general population before our current schooling systems became mandatory, this is because schools most often use the least efficient methods of learning as their teaching methods ie - Reading books, hearing lectures etc. Students generally only retain 10-20% of the information that they've learned. People gain the maximum amount of learning through direct experience, or at least simulated experience these activities lead to closer to 90% memory retention.


Well, I also have that opinion about the formal systems of education... but, again, I don't see an apology of the formal system of education in my comments.


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## Winterreisender (Jul 13, 2013)

I can be a hard worker... but could of course always try harder.

I am reminded of Mark Twain on the difference between work and play: "Work consists of whatever a body is obliged to do and Play consists of whatever a body is not obliged to do." I think I have this problem. For example I love studying and language learning, but whenever I find myself in a situation where I am obliged to these things for work or university purposes, they suddenly become rather less attractive. For that reason I find it hard to stay focussed on a single topic.


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## Sonata (Aug 7, 2010)

Ingélou said:


> I can work *extremely* hard - when I *need* to - or when I *want* to. In such circumstances I am *obsessive*, and *well-organised*. Examples include - passing exams; lesson preparation; learning New Testament Greek by myself for an AS Level in Religious Studies; practising my violin; clearing the garden in a property we'd just moved into; painting a room; getting the house ready for my mother's ninetieth birthday party; helping my mother put together a family memoir; sorting out books or cds.
> 
> *But* - I am *the laziest procrastinator on earth* when I hate a task or when there's no pressure to start it, let alone complete it. Examples include - daily housework; weeding the garden; ironing; tidying; mending clothes; taking jars to the bottle bank; matching up my pop sox...
> 
> For this reason I voted 'hard worker, but could do more'.


Ingenue, we just may be kindred spirits. Fits me to a tee


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## mstar (Aug 14, 2013)

..................................


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## Ingélou (Feb 10, 2013)

mstar, you *don't *need to be 'the best'; only to *do* your best, without giving yourself health problems and worrying your family. You also may have to accept that sometimes others may have more talent than you. Why should that matter? You are still uniquely special & uniquely lovable (as we all are).


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## senza sordino (Oct 20, 2013)

I work too hard, and I should consider doing less. I am at work before many and always the last to leave. I sit in my classroom after hours and do my marking. I am in the room alone listening to music. And listening to the music makes the hours roll by without effort. Oh just one more Mahler Symphony and then I'll go home!


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## clavichorder (May 2, 2011)

I answered unsure. My teacher's have praised my diligence as an outstanding quality. I think it is my inclination to want to put my best into everything, but fear of failure gets in the way. Anxiety is the only thing that gets in my way from being actually a fairly hard worker.


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## tdc (Jan 17, 2011)

aleazk said:


> It also has been shown that these limits are flexible. You can improve your attention by working on it.
> And, in any case, I don't know what your answer has to do with my comment. I never made some kind of apology of studying the day before the exam or things like that. You seem to propose some idea that working hard is some kind of activity which consist in just absorbing the material in a completely inefficient and maniac way. That's cartoonish, and it's evidently not recommended.
> As I said, I conceive hard work simply as perseverance and mental effort in understanding what you are doing.
> 
> Well, I also have that opinion about the formal systems of education... but, again, I don't see an apology of the formal system of education in my comments.


I do think my comments have to do with yours because you feel that your definition of working hard and working efficient are the same, I was just pointing out how the two can be seen as different ideas. You said if the pile of books on your desk need reading they are not going to magically enter your brain, I was explaining how by working efficiently one can do less work and retain more information, therefore the amount of work you do is not necessarily an indicator of how much success you will have in learning. I am not proposing an actual dichotomy here, but a difference. I think hard work is a virtue, but people also need balance in their lives - relaxation, recreation, socialization all of these things are important in a healthy life, mind and body - everything is connected. Many feel that maximum wisdom is gained by the act of meditation, which is generally done by completely relaxing the body and stopping the thought process - does this sound like hard work? There is just as much virtue I think in stopping thought than there is in thinking about things and working at things.


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## ArtMusic (Jan 5, 2013)

Interesting about hard work and efficiency, which I do not think they are necessarily always linked but often it can be. I think J. S. Bach was extremely hard working - raising a large family in cramped and not financially well off means during Leipzig, teaching and living with school children and composing cantata cycles all meant he had to be efficient *and* hard working.

But just because if one is efficient, that does not mean without hard work will get one somewhere. It just means expending the least effort to achieve something, but that least effort is a relative measure, which on its own can involve very hard work indeed, thinking about the Bach cantata cycle example.


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## techniquest (Aug 3, 2012)

For the past 40 years I have been an extremely hard worker. That is until I retired last week


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## Cheyenne (Aug 6, 2012)

To be frank: not really. Time just flies when you're having fun, as they say. There's not enough time left to work hard.. I'm trying, however.


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