No Substitute for Hard Work and Gratitude

There is no substitute for hard work, as these quotes reflect:
 
“It doesn’t matter how great your shoes are if you don’t accomplish anything in them.” 
― Martina Boone, Compulsion
 
“Logic will get you from point A to point B. Imagination and hard work will take you everywhere else.” 
― Albert Einstein
 
“Maybe the cure for any burnout is to work harder.” 
― Phil Knight, Shoe Dog: A Memoir by the Creator of NIKE
 
“Work smartly, diligently and silently; One day your introduction will be “Google Me.” 
― Kayambila Mpulamasaka
 
“If you trust in yourself. . .and believe in your dreams. . .and follow your star. . . you’ll still get beaten by people who spent their time working hard and learning things and weren’t so lazy.” 
― Terry Pratchett, The Wee Free Men
 
“The difference between ordinary and extraordinary is that little extra.” 
― Jimmy Johnson
 
And what happens after we do the heavy lifting? After we achieve the level of success we were striving to reach? What then? How important a component is gratitude among the super successful?

I recently came across an intriguing article by Ruth Umoh on how some of the most successful business minds live a gratitude-filled life. (Ruth Umoh is editor-in-chief of The Filament and a veteran business journalist.)

Umoh states that taking the time to be thankful and appreciative for things you have received – tangible or intangible – makes you feel more positive emotions, relish good experiences, improve your health, help you deal with adversity and build strong relationships — all crucial both in and out of the workplace.

Umoh mentions Oprah Winfrey, who tracked the things she was grateful for in a “gratitude journal” for a decade. Here’s what Oprah was grateful for on October 12, 1996: 
1. A run around Florida’s Fisher Island with a slight breeze that kept me cool. 
2. Eating cold melon on a bench in the sun. 
3 . A long and hilarious chat with Gayle about her blind date with Mr. Potato Head. 
4. Sorbet in a cone, so sweet that I literally licked my finger. 
5. Maya Angelou calling to read me a new poem. 

 

In 2014, Mark Zuckerberg challenged himself to write one thank you note a day to counter his critical nature, social awkwardness and to express more gratitude. “It’s important for me, because I’m a really critical person,” Zuckerberg told Bloomberg Business Week. “I always kind of see how I want things to be better, and I’m generally not happy with how things are, or the level of service that we’re providing for people, or the quality of the teams that we built.” 

Former PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi revealed in an interview with Fortune that she sends letters to the parents of top Pepsi executives. She began doing so after a trip home to India, where she witnessed her mother’s pride at all the praise she received about her daughter’s success.

There is no substitute for hard work, just as there is no substitute for being thankful for what we have and having others give credence to our contributions too. And on this day – the day after Thanksgiving – many of us are fortunate to wake up in comfortable surroundings, with full bellies and full hearts filled with gratitude as well. And that consciousness of gratitude – for what we already have and what we already have achieved – can go a long way in upping our chances for both happiness and success – in and out of the work force – in the coming days and months.

Especially if we spread the message of conscious gratitude around – genuinely, thoughtfully and frequently.
 
Keep Preserving Your Bloom,
 
Iris Ruth Pastor
 
PS: Thank you to my social media gal, Irna Skoljik, for finding the quotes on hard work.