Shut Up and Work

There is a shirt that I absolutely love. All it says on it is, “Shut Up and Work!” I love that statement. People would rather talk, complain, waste time, make excuses, and waste energy instead of getting results, become better, push themselves, take ownership, and put in the hard work. Here’s the bottom line, instead of running your mouth and wasting time, just shut up and work.

The more we talk, the farther behind we get. The more excuses we make, the less progress we make. The more we complain, the weaker we become. American lawyer, Mel Robbins, said it best, “No one’s coming to push you. No one is coming to tell you to turn the TV off. No one’s coming to tell you to get out the door and exercise. Nobody is coming to tell you to apply for that job that you always dreamt about. No one’s coming to write the business plan for you. You got to parent yourself. You got to push yourself.”

Our society lacks discipline, focus, and purpose. Let me take that back, our society doesn’t lack any of those things, it’s just all in the wrong things. Society is disciplined in complaining and making excuses, society is focused on playing the victim, and society’s purpose is to be heard and cancel people who don’t agree with the mainstream agenda. When we allow social media, mainstream media, and the news to tell us what to think and what’s important, we lose sight of what really matters.

We have a generation of people who expect things to be given to them, and when they don’t get what they want, they throw a fit, complain, and claim that they are oppressed. Here’s the hard reality. You don’t get what you want. You get what you work for. So, shut up and work. We no longer teach the value and importance of hard work. Society sees work as a chore rather than an opportunity. Yes, work is hard and not fun at times, but work brings purpose and meaning to life. We were designed to be workers. At the dawn of time, mankind had to work for everything – food, shelter, fire, water. As technology has advanced, we haven’t needed to work as hard, and we have become lazier, more apathetic, and have slowly started losing purpose. It has also created a “here and now” mindset. Instead of understanding the value of earning something, society expects it to be given to them.

People want to complain that the top 1% of our society is what’s wrong with this world. They want to complain that people who make the most money make it hard for the rest of us. All I hear are a bunch of people whining and complaining that they don’t have what they want, because they aren’t willing to put in the time or work that it takes to get them what they want. Instead of working hard and earning what they want, people want the wealthy’s money, the money the wealthy worked hard for and were willing to put in the time, work, and energy to obtain, to be redistributed among society. Talk about a selfish, self-centered, and entitled society. If you want something, shut up and work for it.

We need to change the mindset of future generations. We need to teach and show the value and importance of hard work, discipline, and self-respect. We need to bring back the mindset of resilience, perseverance, and grit. Instead of giving our children everything they want, we need to be parents who teach these foundational values. Instead of giving them every electronic device known to man, turn off the screen and have them do some actual work. We need to show our children that work is something to cherish and enjoy. We need to show them that we don’t get what we want unless we are willing to work for it. Instead of being a society that is entitled, complains, and pushes blame, we need to be a society that values discipline, hard work, self-respect, and integrity.