When Trying is Not Enough

I love my Rocky films. I grew up watching them religiously and I am not ashamed to say that the character of Rocky has had a big influence on my life.

His kind honest nature and determination are traits that I have and still do look up to and want to embody in my own life.

Recently, I have been putting in quite a bit of effort at work, effort which seems to have been moving me forwards in my endeavours, but just last week I hit a bit of a brick wall. One of the major projects I have been working on has been “paused”. The reason I have been given is that we do not have the “right team on the pitch”.

This is true, and I agree. I have been flying solo working on a big project when usually there would be a team of five people working on it. It seems like Rambo winning one man wars only happens in the movies!

I agree with the pause, but that does not mean I have easily accepted it. It has, and is taking some hard work to not be bothered by it and view is in a negative way.

Work Smart or Hard?

This morning I was reflecting over a coffee, staring at a print I have on the wall.

It is the famous ending of Rocky 3 where Rocky and Creed have a behind closed doors fight… and we never find out who wins.

In the picture, you can see rocky is stepping in with a classic left straight, which looks on target, however Creed appears to have the better position with an overhand right making its way directly to Rocky’s chin.

It is hard to tell who will win, but in the past, despite Creed’s better technique, Rocky was able to take all the punishment and keep moving forwards. Defeating Creed with determination and heart rather than skill.

When it came to Clubber Lang in the movie Rocky 3, Rocky needed the skills of Creed combined with his determination to get things done.

A Little Help

For some reason this morning, staring at this picture reminded me of a little life lesson I taught my step son.

One day he wanted some help doing some arts and crafts. I can’t remember the specific thing, but I do remember that it was a little tricky to do for his young hands, and you had to take your time and complete each step of the process properly.

I showed him what to do, and helped him do it a few times, then left him to get on with it while I went upstairs to do something else. Twenty to thirty minutes later I returned to see how he was getting on.

He had a disappointed, overly disappointed (fake unhappy) look on his face.

He had not managed to make very much progress at all. Now, I think the young lad both was being a bit lazy and could not be bothered with the faffy task, but also wanted a reason to ask for some help so we could spend some time together.

Either way, I thought it best to give him some advice that would help him get along, and also make him more respectable company to spend time with.

Hammering Nails

To give you some context, I had previously taught Dev how to hammer nails in to wood…

I said to Dev, “you seemed to know what you were doing when I showed you”.

His response was “I have been trying really hard”.

When I looked at what he had done, he had rushed the first few steps and tried to finish his craft too quickly. The approach was simply never going to work.

I said this to Dev:

Remember when I taught you how to hammer nails in… you use a hammer because it is the right tool for the job. Well, imagine if you had taught one of you friends to hammer nails in, then left him alone to hammer in ten nails.

When you returned, there was not a single nail hammered in. You friend said: “but I have been trying really hard”.

You ask your friend to show you.

It turns out he was trying to hammer the nails in using his own head! Not the hammer!!!

Yes he was trying really hard, put he was not using the right tool or approach for the job!

What would you say to your friend?

You see Dev, life is not about simply just trying hard, you need to be smart with your approach. You do not get success by hammering in the nails with your head!