With the conclusion of the college year, some of our college-aged children have returned to the nest. We enjoy immensely having them home again. My daughter has a particular interest in plants and gardening, even though she is majoring in art. With her influence on me, we took two days to work in our yard and garden, finally getting things planted. As we spent the better part of two days together we managed to turn a section of our yard from an overgrown area with two planter boxes to four planter boxes with weed cloth, pavers, and an automatic sprinkler circuit dedicated to the garden boxes.

For a desk-jockey such as myself, and even for her, we were very tired at the end of each of the two days, but the reward will last for years. As we made the multiple runs to the hardware store to get more pavers, sprinkler parts, soil etc, I was reminded of how good it feels to be tired from a hard-day’s work.

Some of the benefits of hard work include:

Increased self-esteem

Better health

The fruits of your labors (or vegetables as the case may be)

A good-night’s sleep

A major portion of my professional focus and work revolves around helping people reach their full potential by setting and achieving big goals. Any goal, big or small, won’t go anywhere without work or effort behind it.

Tony Robbins teaches that we need to take “massive action” in the area of our goals in order to achieve them. The problem is that most of us that do set goals, don’t follow through with the level of work needed to make them become a reality.

Gary Vanerchuck is well known for touting the need to work hard at whatever it is you want to do. Evenings, weekends, and even nights are prime opportunities to do the hard work that he refers to.

Personally, I believe that the most efficient and effective work comes with periodic breaks in order to maintain the highest level of effectiveness while working. Sleep is a vital component of your ability to give it your best effort, but there are lots of time wasters and distractions that rob many of us of prime opportunities to accomplish or further our efforts at things more meaningful than social media, video games, or movies.

As a child, probably like most children, I hated having to work. I would have preferred watching Gilligan's Island or the Brady Bunch to cleaning my room or mowing the lawn. My maternal grandmother was the antidote to those tendencies. To her, your value as a human being depending on your ability to work, and work hard. She was raised on a farm, with a large family of children during the depression, so work was literally what put food on the table.

I remember staying at her home for a few weeks one summer and being upset that I had to mow her lawn. As I begrudgingly went about the process with the level of enthusiasm you would expect from someone sporting this attitude, my cousin came by and asked what I was upset about. I told him I was being forced to mow the lawn. He said, something like, “It’s not that hard.” He then took the lawn mower from me, and finished it in about half the time that I would have done it in my current moping pace.

At that moment, I came to the realization that I was spending more effort trying to avoid work, than it was to just do the work. I didn’t suddenly have a love for all-things work, but I did start to make the transition to realize that maybe work wasn’t all that bad.

The bottom line, if you want to increase your self-esteem then learn to work hard. If you want to enjoy the fruits of your labors then work. If you want to accomplish your goals then don’t be afraid to work. Work is the only way we move things forward. Not all work is physical, but whether you work at a desk or with your hands, don’t be afraid to work hard.

Learn about my upcoming book, Small Steps, Big Feat here.