Working hard is a good thing. However you can, working hard is generally going to be a good thing. Not working hard, or waiting out the clock, doing the minimum amount of effort to keep your job, or even purposefully not doing your best is generally not a good thing. Working hard can be easy, but it takes effort. Working hard can be showing up consistently, on time. Working hard can be consistently doing your personal best. Working hard can be excelling at your job or working fantastically long hours. Working hard can also just be knowing when your mind or body needs to take a break. Work hard, but don’t burn out.

Let’s say you were a car. Something happened, and you’re now a car, for the sake of this example. A car with manual transmission, forgot to mention. Ok, so you’re a manual transmission car and unfortunately gears 2-6 don’t work all of a sudden. You’d need to not rev your engine as much, and go at a slower and steady pace. In this situation, because you’re a car with an engine, you’re working hard. You’d be not burning out by maintaining a steady pace, instead of trying to go as fast as possible.

Work hard, but don’t burn out, however it means to you. If you’re someone who is able to drive fast while stuck in first gear, that’s a good thing. If you’re someone who is happy maintaining a slow burn, that’s great too. Find out at what level you can perform, where you’re still doing your best, and are aware of your personal limits. Don’t compare yourself to others.

Everyone works differently, and performance level does not always correspond to visibility. Somethings may look easy, but actually be very difficult and vice versa. It isn’t reasonable to expect yourself or others to perform at maximum capacity 24/7/365. By finding your own performance level and encouraging others to do the same, you will all be preventing yourselves from burning out.