Striving to work hard in everything that you do is an admirable value to carry both in life and in the workplace. By working hard, it is easy to push oneself to be self-motivated. This can help tasks be easily realized and accomplished. A unique characteristic about hard work that I find interesting is that you do not have to be talented or gifted at something if you work hard. The commonly heard phrase “hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work hard,” could not be ore correct. Hard work is a personality trait that can be learned and integrated into everyone in society. Working diligently creates a sense of pride in the work that is accomplished. Pride may have a negative connotation; however, I feel it is undeserving of this. Pride is in fact important to have. As Aristotle describes pride: “The proud man, then, is an extreme in respect of the greatness of his claims, but a mean in respect of the rightness of them; for he claims what is accordance with his merits, while the others go to excess or fall short,” (Sacred Texts). Pride is often mistaken for arrogance, because both seem to value oneself highly. Pride, however, is rational and requires one to think highly of accomplishments and abilities, but these accomplishments and abilities need to be worthy of praise to do so. It has a consequence of making a person want to improve himself to feel greater pride. Working hard and taking pride in that …show more content…
It is our responsibility as members of a global society to set our standards high and strive for the best. By pushing ourselves to become the best person possible, society can only be strengthened. Society can be greatly improved if each one of us improves ourselves. As Voltaire said, “We must cultivate our gardens,” (Voltaire). We are all responsible for our own destinies and should not let others determine our course in life. Contrary to popular belief, it is possible to be too optimistic. Optimism is important when it creates a sense of possibility that leads you to act, but it is destructive when it leads to the conclusion that things will work out the way they were meant to no matter what. Being optimistic about a situation will inspire you to take action, but being optimistic to a point that you believe action is unnecessary is only hurting yourself. Convincing yourself that everything will work out may alleviate stress, however, it takes away your freedom to act upon your circumstances. Likewise living life in a pessimistic way is unhealthy. A little pessimism can be good, but living life expecting the worst of everything cannot be a good way to live. I argue that instead, we should take control of our own destinies. Instead of living pessimistically or optimistically, we should make our own views. The glass is not half empty or half full, but instead it is how much we