September 9th, 2020
"Live smart" sometimes has a negative connotation to it. A common phrase attached to it is that we should not try to work harder but smarter. This involves the efficient use of time and resources. Unfortunately with even the best-intended maxims, it can be spun in an unfavourable light. It now invokes the intent of how to be successful with the minimum amount of work. The goal of minimizing work can lead to a negative work ethic. I do believe in progress, in better methods, and ways of doing things provided that they are progressive.
Hard work and effort are timeless, they will never go out of fashion in the toolbox of success. Hard-working people are the ones who find ways how to do things faster. I believe in balance, there must be a time for work and a time for rest (other things). People who work hard with the aim to work less in the future will find the excessive rest to be a false utopia it promises.
The pursuit of efficiency should not end in having more rest time, but rather freeing resources especially our time to do more things.
Proverbs 22:3: A prudent man forseeth the evil, and hideth himself: but the simple pass on and are punished.
Efficiency cannot be pursued without tackling the issue of waste. Waste comes in many forms: and it normally comes in the disguise of a friendly monster called distraction. How many hours have been spent on Facebook, and watching the news and sport? And let me ask what new skill did you learn last year?
The way to tackle distraction is to compartmentalize your time. When it is work, it is only work. There is no way you can be working on a project and you have a Facebook tab opened on the computer.
Another googly-eyed cousin to distraction is pleasure. It is mind-boggling to see so many people work hard to earn an income and squander it all on their pleasure (or poison). Many want to retire early and or have a comfortable retirement and fail to prepare for tomorrow by living excessively today.
Save money. People look hard in ways how to make more money, and forget the other equation of saving money. There is an English saying that goes like a penny saved is a penny earned. One of the psychological effects and inherent abilities gained from mastering how to save money is learning how to respect money. Money is important, it the exchange of your life's work. When you regard the hours of work you put into getting the money you should hopefully gain the discipline to say no to all the shiny material things. The person who saves grows an acute awareness that we do not need so many things to be happy or functional.
Vanity is the cutest monster of them all. Men are also without excuse? Why do you buy the big bad car when the small efficient one would have sufficed? We have expended ourselves impressing people to the degradation of our self-improvement. We have spent lavishly so we can look stylish and fashionable for those who have the privilege of seeing us.
Conquering the monsters of distraction and vanity will not be easy. Beat that delusion that vain pleasures are false security.