Santa Clara Meditation Clean Mind – How do hard work and smart work compare?
Peter Drucker: “The best way to predict the future is to create it”
These words were spoken by Austrian-American Peter Drucker, the founder of modern management, during his lifetime. People who live like this quote are probably hard-working and smart-working people. Don’t you think, ‘I’m not a hardworking person, I’m not an excellent person, I’m an ordinary person?’ I did. At every job I went to, I fought with team members and bosses, and then I left the company. I thought I was lazy by nature, so my dream was to be unemployed for the rest of my life on unearned income. And every job I went to, I looked at my colleagues and seniors who were better than me, and I refused to develop myself, thinking, “I don’t want to sacrifice my personal life to succeed like them.”
Have you ever farmed? I have farmed. When I was a college student, I went to the countryside for volunteer work every summer vacation. I bent my back, weeded, and harvested crops under the sun, which was 30 degrees Celsius. In my young mind, I felt that I really didn’t want to do this kind of physical labor. So after graduating from college, I worked in pre-production for newspapers, publishers, and actor management companies in search of sophisticated, fancy jobs that didn’t sweat. At least in a workplace like this, I thought my creativity and brilliant ideas would work. But this was my miscalculation. What needed more than good planning skills was a low-minded attitude to respect, listen and learn about the abilities of someone who is better than me. After graduating from college in my 20s and 30s, the workplace environment I met was harsh, ruthless, and unsuccessful. I lived as a full-time housewife, I thought about this experience all the time and bowed my head in shame. I stigmatized myself as ‘I am a loser.’
It’s been more than a decade since I left my last job. I recently started a new job. It specializes in teaching meditation to young people. During my 10-year hiatus, I raised two children and started meditation for inner growth. You and I are on a difficult and painful path of life. As I was raising my child, I studied life, and I looked back on myself in meditation and abandoned it. When there’s a hard day, there’s a good day. I no longer consider myself a loser. Through meditation, I overcame myself in the past. I take it lightly, “There are times when people fail in their lives.” I also had the courage to admit my own shortcomings.
The negative mind, stress, and self-deprecation were abandoned through meditation, passion arose in me. I got passion, so I worked hard and focused on one thing, so I got creative. I was able to see my strengths, which I could not see before, and I was able to use virtues such as affinity with people and communication skills in class with students.
Since I meditate, my mind is relaxed and my mind is getting bigger. In the past, I wanted to work hard and work wisely for my success, but now my perspective has changed. I started to think about the other person rather than me. I do research every moment to relieve students of their pain and burden through meditation. The fellow teachers I work with are helping to develop together. It’s surprisingly easy to act like this, and it’s amazing how natural it is.
Working hard is no different from working wisely. It’s one. The more you work, the wiser you are, the more fun you are, the harder you work. To be like this, you have to change your mind. Consciousness must expand from a narrow mind to a wide mind. In order for this change to occur to you, you must first take off the burden of your heart. I recommend meditation to the writers of Quora and you who are always trying hard to make a positive change in your life. Meditation allows you to live the life you want.
by Donna Seo
