WHAT IF WE: HARD WORK

A few months ago I was in a bus en route home from town. It was a Sunday afternoon. I sat next to this father who was speaking to his son on the phone (okay, it was either his son or someone else's son but there was frequent use of the word “Kababa”). I could not hear what the person on the other side of the telephone conversation was saying (partly because it was none of my business and partly because this man was talking too loudly and I just wanted to shut him off my mind trail), but you could tell by the words of this man that the person on the other side was important.  He kept asking the other party if he had been working hard and if he held on to his dream. He kept reassuring him to keep working on that dream and work hard so that he may not end up like his father (Enough with the pressure already lol).

Source: www.npr.org

Fast forward to a month ago when I sat in an audience where a person I admire from work was sharing her story. Well, hers is not the riches to rags story, neither is her story like what most people use in talk shows and such forums where they say how they are from a humble background (note, as a friend of mine said, coming from such backgrounds does not give you monopoly over suffering), and they rose above adversity to succeed. Don’t get me wrong, I do love those stories too, they are a source of inspiration. Hers, on the other side, is a story of how she set goals for herself, kept her eyes on that dream and worked damn hard to be where she is, regardless of where she came from. She is a dreamer, a hard worker, a spirited go-getter, and has neither the time nor the space for mediocre or substandard things. And you can see the result from her work to her family, her husband (you should see them together) and the way she runs life in general. Now, before you start fussing and start telling me how I may not know what she is going trough and that no one can have it all, lemmie remind you that what she kept insisting on was hard work. H.A.R.D W.O.R.K.

A good friend and I have been talking about dreams, goals desires and what we are doing about them a lot of late. *By the way, friend who shall not be named, this is just a permanent and polite reminder that you owe me a shout out. Remember. SOTMIII*. Where was I? Yes, Hard work. I always tell some girls I mentor that I am one staunch believer of hard work. Yes, success (and achieving dreams) comes in many ways and using different avenues but if there I one that I can take to the bank and I was brought up with is hard work. The good book states very well that 

“In all toil there is profit, but mere talk tends only to poverty.” (Proverbs 14:23) 

I have never met anyone who worked so hard and it never worked out. If you meet one, please let me know so that I meet them. What we have these days are people who want it easy, people who are not willing to work hard or sweat for their dreams. Hell, we don’t even dream anymore or have these goals and aspirations. #YOLO has become a mantra that will destroy us, if we are not careful. Remember that dream you had when you were young? That goal you wanted to achieve, that person you wanted to become? What happened to those dreams and aspirations? Sure, you will say life happened. Sure, you will say priorities changed. But you know what, a dream never dies, no matter the circumstance…your gut still holds on to that dream, wanting to pursue it so bad. A dream never dies.

We all know that 10,000 hours theory, right? I talked about it here. What if we all started working on that dream? What if we started yesterday? What if we started today? What if we so badly wanted that dream? What if we were willing to spill sweat and blood to achieve it? What if we worked so damn hard? For our families, relationships, companies, ourselves? What if we did it #ForMyCity and for humanity? 

  

What if we worked hard?  

Facebook:  Njeri Kareithi

Twitter: @deekareithi

 (The campaign dubbed #ForMyCity led by Poetry Spot. Follow the conversation here)