The sweet, delicious corn that our family has been able to enjoy during our Summer dinners this year has been nothing short of spectacular. Just seeing the hot, steaming corn dripping with butter next to a mountain of hard shell crabs or beside some perfectly steamed green vegetables makes my mouth water. As I tell my wife Amy how great the corn is, I'm reminded of the hard work that went into making that corn on my plate a reality. It was work that started months ago with the tilling of the soil in the fields, planting the seed corn, watering, weeding, watching, etc.
Without those months of work, well, there just would be no corn on my plate to enjoy. No one in our family knows this better than Amy as she is working this Summer at a local farm co-op. When she gets home from working in the fields, she has all the markings of someone who has put in “the work.” She has dirt and grime under her nails and on her face, she is tired beyond belief and her muscles ache. She has put in the hard and dirt-filled work; so we can enjoy that sweet, amazing corn.
The work comes before the fruit. It has always been that way and it will always be that way. Oh sure, you may find an occassional short cut that may get the job done from time to time, but the bottom line is that we have to put in the work to get the sweetest fruit. The late great author and speaker Stephen Covey calls this "the law of the farm" and there is just no way to short cut this law. You will find short cuts advertised on just about anything you want to achieve in life, be it:
- Health ("Six-minute abs" anyone?)
- Education (“Earn your bachelor’s degree in 1 year!” tout many online banner ads)
- Business (Ever heard of the "One-Minute Manager?")
In other words, no matter where it is that you want to go in life, you will need to put in the work to get there even though there's a pretty strong voice in the world trying every day to tell you differently.
You may be saying to yourself, “Ok Jason! I get it, but what does that mean to me? Where do I go from here?” One of our main purposes at Rewire is to be in our client’s corner to give them an advantage as they perform the work. We walk side by side with them as the work is being done. Some common attributes that we have noticed about clients who consistently achieve versus the ones that are not as consistent is that they are not afraid of the work and they fully complete step one of the work prior to moving on to step two of the work. No shorts cuts and no cheap, quick, unsustainable change.
Instead, success comes from treating change like growing corn: there's hard work and time put in, patience, maybe some advice from someone who's done it before, and then sustainable, lasting and enjoyable change happens. If you would like to mimic this in your own life, then first make a decision to put in the work. There are many more steps in the process of "where do I go from here?" But, without the decision that you are willing to put in the work, none of the rest of the steps really matter.
Are you willing to put in the work or do you have a story to share about some work that you put in? Whether it's business, personal or horticultural, please tell us all about it in the comments section below.
