Shortcuts can be tempting and useful but unsustainable!
Not everything in life happens the way we want it to be. Not every road you take towards your destination is smooth and free of hindrances. Sometimes and in great measures life happens to take various turns and twists, tempting you to take shortcuts to succeed with less efforts and in short span of time. They are luring and promising indeed. Sometimes they offer just what is necessary for you. But does it always work that way?
Hard work and struggle through the various levels of success is the right way most of the time. Just like in a video game, you cannot expect to jump from level 1 to level 4 without having to go through the hurdles of 2 and 3. They are there for a reason. They are meant to teach you lessons that would help in solving the puzzles of later stages. If your foundation is based on shortcuts, you are more at a risk of facing too many hurdles later and unprepared.
If technology can save time, why not take a shortcut?1. Saving time: Time is the most precious factor in every walk of life. If you don’t value time, you are soon to lose track of all your prized possessions. Shortcuts are mainly used for saving on time. If you complete a task in shorter duration with the same accuracy and effectiveness, why take the orthodox long tour when a simple detour can make things simpler? When you save time at the end of the task, you benefit from getting extra hours for yourself which is what most people lack today and later go on complaining about how hectic their life has become. If you are short on deadline, it is always better that you take the shortcut instead of trying the traditional route.
2. Saving resources: Taking shortcut saves resources too. You spend less money on transportation to a certain location if you take the route which is shorter than the one usually recommended. Relying on shortcut can sometimes prevent wastage of resources too. At the end of the task you could realize that perhaps the prescribed resources were never necessary for the completion of the task. Your work is done and you save big too. It’s a win-win situation.
3. Saving efforts: The long way usually takes a lot of effort from your side. It could get you exhausted even before the work is done. You could save all those efforts and energy by taking the shortcut which can make things simpler and easy to handle. Sometimes it is the need of the hour. You don’t have much help at hand and yet the task needs to be completed on time, shortcuts can be a savior in these hours.
4. Pressure makes you better: Working under pressure makes some people perform better and with more creativity. On a short notice if you are dedicated on completing a task, you can still buckle up and get to work with confidence that you could do the work at hand singlehandedly. Being practical is also important in that hour and the best way practical option under pressure could be a shortcut at the right moment. You can not only complete the work but also give it the best shot that could be done in the short span of time.
5. Doesn’t require perfection: Mostly shortcuts are all about just getting the work done. It doesn’t really matter to anyone if there are imperfections because there is always the added advantage of having done the task at the shortest notice. Quick fixes come handy when there are imperfections in the work and you won’t be blamed for the minute errors, nevertheless. You get the work done. You make sure that it reaches the destination on time. You are a hero anyway.
6. Race to the finish line: If you are competing with time against a competitor, shortcut can be your best friend. You can beat out the competition by proving that you got it in you to work under immense pressure and do what is required in that hour. That is a winning approach and your bosses are going to like it. What they expect from you is mainly getting the work done on time no matter how you do it. You give it to them and you win the race against many odds.
Shortcuts make you lazy and less professional:1. Errors: Sometimes, simply getting the work done might not be all that matters to your client. They could be expecting perfection which is simply not possible in shortcuts. Shortcuts are basically a detour. If you do not happen to stumble across the laid out hurdles, you might not even qualify for the finals. That could be considered an error that could not be fixed. You lose the reliability of your clients and they would no longer trust in your caliber for the next assignment.
2. You miss the experience: The journey from finish to end matters. There are experiences embedded on that path that makes you better and stronger to face the challenges of the end line. If you miss the lessons, you are more likely to emerge first but not as a winner. Your work will lack the experiences that give sustainability and strength to the task. Lesser experience doesn’t make you apt to handle bigger challenges.
3. Low quality: Lured by shortcut, people more than often ignore the quality of the task. All they worry about is putting out the fire on time. But every work is not a fire that needs to be put out. Sometimes that fire needs to be kept ignited till the very end. Low quality work lacks the strength and sustainability in the long run. You might have completed the task anyhow but if your clients aren’t happy with what you present to them, you lose all the future chances of more projects with them.
4. Makes you lazy: Once you are addicted to doing the work at the final moment and finishing it with a shortcut, you already are on the wrong track that is going to make you a lethargic and ignorant person. If you are overconfident that there is a lot of time and you could always take the shortcut and beat the turtle towards the finish line, you never know when you doze off and the turtle takes the trophy.
5. Double the trouble: In an endeavor to complete the task via shortcut you could make a mistake that could put all your work to a total waste. Your work could be rejected and you could be asked to redo the entire task. The disappointment could be very frustrating.
Shortcuts can be a bliss sometimes and that’s when people start being addicted to them and applying the same to all other spheres of life. Shortcuts are preferred only when they won’t compromise on something bigger. If the work has to be done perfectly and the clients leave the choice of method to you, by all means resort to shortcut but do not make that a habit. They are addictive and useful but not sustainable in the long run indeed.
