FC

Work

It's easy to see the best version of someone. Find them at work. This isn't necessarily the work she does at her day job, although it could very well be. She could enjoy it, or not. The important thing is that whatever you're observing her do, she's good at it. Like, better than most.

It's because you're watching something that is the result of every minute of hard work poured into it over her life. There's no doubt she was probably lousy at it at first, although maybe she got a lucky break and had a knack for it, but when you put deliberate hard work into something long enough, talent suddenly becomes a non-issue. You're witnessing something in her that she has managed to push through all the walls of dropping it up to now.

And that's beautiful. There are the obvious things that are beautiful, like watching a dancer, or a musician, an athlete, anything that moves really. But what's just as fascinating are the ones that are quiet. Have you seen a writer at work? Or maybe a designer, or a journalist, or a programmer. Everyone is struggling. Struggling for words, for ideas, for hitting that note or getting to that goal. So in motion or in stillness, watching people break through these struggles over and over every day is an inspiration.

There are the people who are good at things that they don't realize they're good at. Have you ever met a good talker? A good networker? How about a good listener? These people have inadvertedly become really good at this thing that makes them more endearing as a person. You can't get enough of them. Maybe because they have a natural inclination, but more than anything because they've been working at it. What else? How about someone who is hilarious, all the time? Or someone who managed to get people to follow him or her, a leader? I would hesitate to ever call someone a natural leader because they learned it, whether they realize it or not.

And here's the most amazing one. Everyone has at least a shred of it, but there are people that have internalized this one quality that it's what you how you define that person, in a good way. That quality is kindness. How can someone be good at being nice? Even if you see her get stressed or frustrated, they're still essentially a kind person. It's flattering when they are kind to you, but it's fascinating when you see them genuinely be kind to everyone around you and them.

So, think about this thing you work on. Work hard at it. It doesn't have to be one thing either, so work hard at work, and work hard at home, and work hard when you play. It feels good. You don't have to constantly break your back at hard work, but put heart into it. This is the purest form of you. The one that is completely focused on the task at hand. It shouldn't matter, but that's what people will see, even when you don't think they're looking, and it's what people will to remember you by. Not the only thing they remember you by, but the thing they remember you fondly by.

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