Understanding and Applying the Difference

The research in this field has found that hard work and hard goals, rather than so-called “do your best” goals, have a positive sway on success and achievement. Hard goals, and working hard towards these goals, tend to bring greater value as they tend to be clear and specific in nature and direction, rather than being vague or general.

The aim of promoting and engaging in the action of purposefully seeking out hard goals, according to Kevin Linderman et al., is to extend the individual mentally, emotionally, intellectually and physically because hard goals are (more often than not), “closer to the upper limit of an individual’s capacity to perform than to their initial level of performance.”

This focussed purposeful action requires the individual with deliberate conscious intent to apply, strive, persevere and to have the passion and want to work hard towards achieving the goal in question. As Linderman, et al., point out, this drive, this personal want and action of working hard tend to help the participant “to focus…attention, mobilise effort and increase persistence at a task.”

The research unambiguously informs that by working hard, by persevering, at seeking out and advancing hard goals, the individual will not only grow in their knowledge but they will also develop what is referred to as mental and emotional toughness.

Through this personal act of perseverance, which also involves resilience, the individual will emerge intrinsically stronger from this hard work and adversity that has been faced. As such self-belief and enhanced self-esteem will advance, along with that of the skills and knowledge pertaining to the task at hand. And so, the ongoing journey of advancing potential will tend to continue, when this insight and capacity is known and applied.

Dr Ragnar Purje (PhD; M.Ed.; M.Ed.(Guid.& Couns.); M.Ed.(Lead.&Man.); B.A.(Psych.); B.App.Sc.(P.E.); Grad.Dip.Ed.; Grad.Dip.SportSci.; Grad.Dip.Ex.&SportSci.; Grad.Cert.(Comm.); Grad.Dip.(Health Couns.); Certificate IV in Assess.&Workplace Training; is an Adjunct Senior Lecturer at CQUniversity in the Department of Education and the Arts. Dr Purje works with Professor Ken Purnell, specialising in personal and classroom behaviour management strategies. Dr Purje is the author of Responsibility Theory®. For presentations, Dr Purje is represented by the Saxton Speakers Bureau.