Build Confidence Through Hard Work

Work is often seen as drudgery. How often have you heard people say, it isn’t meant to be fun, it’s work? But if you use work as a way to feel accomplished and confident it suddenly is rewarding. It doesn’t matter if it is life changing complex work or lugging a bucket around. You can build confidence through hard work. How? By developing confidence in what you’re capable of and doing the work to show your stuff. Demonstrate your value to others but also to yourself.

Syrup

Our family loves to make maple syrup. We’ve done it every year since, well before we were a family. My husband was tapping trees, collecting sap, and making syrup before I met him. I’ve been doing it alongside him since we were dating so our kids were born into it. Most often my husband and his partner start, and I bring the kids out help when we’re able. Recently though the bags were just bursting. They looked like giant blue water balloons ready to blow at any moment. I did not know where the guys were (likely both working later than expected) and those trees needed to be collected. The boys and I were home from daycare though, so I told them to get their play clothes on, we needed to get in the woods.

A view of the bags behind my girls, steadying the strainer for the sap pour, and firing up to make syrup!

To paint you a picture, we put a bag on a tap that is attached to the tree. The sap drips into the bag, which we pour into a 5-gallon pail to then pour in a tank. We pump the tank, bringing the sap to the syrup shack just outside the woods where we cook it down into syrup. Often when we collect the bags are about half full meaning that carrying two buckets you can collect 4-5 trees at a time. On the day in question, each bag filled a 5-gallon pail. A gallon of water weighs about 8 lbs so we’re talking carrying two 40 lb buckets around the muddy woods. So, there I was, with an 8-, 6-, and 3-year-old helping them pull down a bag and splitting it between at least 3 of their 4 total pails, then filling mine up to get to the tank. By the time my husband got there, about 2 hours later, we had one tank full and were moving to the next one.

But is that work?

So, what were we ‘rewarded’ with? On the face of it, not much. We had sore muscles and were behind in the normal tasks of the evening. The guys were still out collecting and cleaning up after we were all in bed. The guys were very appreciative of the work we put in; I suppose. Even greater than that though, we got a sense of accomplishment and accomplishment will build confidence. We worked our tails off but filled an entire barrel of sap ourselves and that feels good. There were dozens of trees that didn’t have to be worried about because, we had taken care of it.

I make a point when needed, that collecting sap and making syrup is not ‘work’ it is not a ‘job’ that we do. It is a hobby that if it becomes a ‘have to’ can just be stopped. Not having to do it doesn’t change the fact that it is labor. Nor does it change the way completing that work feels. We love syrup for that; it’s a hobby that is hard work with a very sweet payoff. I’ll continue to push for that lesson with my kids. I’ll find a way for them to achieve that sense of accomplishment and it could be through lots of things, syrup, sports, or music to name a few. I want them to work hard and develop a love for it, not an obligation to do it.

Are you loving work?

How are you promoting work to yourself? Are you enjoying the process and letting yourself love it? Does it build your confidence when your work is done? Acknowledge the less than exciting rewards of sore muscles, tired eyes, or maybe the frazzled mind. These are reminders of the hard work you put in. Take the time to celebrate. Even if it’s only to stand back and say, I did that. Wow I folded that laundry. I built that spreadsheet. I planned that lesson. That was tough but it’s done, and I did it. Recognize the work that you’re putting in. Appreciate the body and mind that allowed you to get it done. Be grateful for the opportunity to have worked and accomplished something, no matter how small. Let that effort and those celebrations build your confidence to the point that you love the end, and the journey. Did the kids and I change anyone’s world by carrying those pails, probably not. Little by little though, it probably changed ours.