According to Thomas Hobbes, Man is a selfish and egoistic creature, this notion is quite true. Man is indeed selfish; he desires the things he knows he can only obtain if he works hard enough for it. But when the time comes and he is to work hard he tends to get lazy and avoid his duties. He does little and asks for more. He complains and is never happy. He wishes to live in luxury but does not have enough stamina to actually do so.
As Theodore had said:
“Nothing in the world is worth having or worth doing unless it means effort, pain, difficulty… I have never in my life envied a human being who led an easy life. I have envied a great many people who led difficult lives and led them well.”
Results don’t count as long as there is Effort:
There are times when the days are filled with despair and sadness. It makes a man upset to think that after all his hard work he did not manage to get what he had deserved. It breaks his heart and he starts to lose hope. For example if a farmer cultivates on his farm, he would be disappointed to see so little of harvest that he has produced when he had worked so hard in planting the seeds. But the main objective is that the farmer needs to be patient.
A wise man used to say:
“You reap what you sow, one way or the other”
Focus on the Task at Hand:
What this phrase actually means is that one should be consistent in his work. He should be patient enough and he would ultimately get the fruit of his hard work. If we take an example of a person who does his best and works hard, then even if the fruit he produces is not as much as the effort he had put in. But he would later come to realize that the effort was not completely useless. All that actually matters is how much effort was put in the objective.
Sandra Day O’ Conor used to say that:
“Do the best you can in every task, no matter how unimportant it may seem at the time. No one learns more about a problem than the person at the bottom.”
Complete happiness Unattainable:
No man is completely happy. He tends to get disappointed when things do not go the way he wants them to. But he fails to realize that even the thought he has put in doing something good was enough in and of itself. The true satisfaction should lie within oneself as he becomes content with the things he did. It does not matter if his deeds produce fruitful results or not as long as he himself is happy with his work.
Conclusion:
In the end one should not feel depressed by not achieving as much as the effort he had put in it. Life tends to balance the results with the input one way or the other so it is better not to become depressed over such meagre things. He should remain content and thank God for the things he had managed to obtain.
Harakumi Murakami used to say:
“People die all the time. Life is a lot more fragile than we think. So you should treat others in a way that leaves no regrets. Fairly, and if possible, sincerely. It's too easy not to make the effort, then weep and wring your hands after the person dies.”
