When I was a sophomore at Herbert W. Armstrong College, my job, as part of the work-study program, was landscaping. The landscaping crew was involved in beautifying the award-winning campus: Mowing grass, weed-whacking, weeding, planting trees and flowers, and much more. But the job which I learned to enjoy, and is still the most memorable, was digging holes in preparation for planting trees.

Yes, digging a hole.

Throughout my teenage years before I came to college, I had dug many holes for my dad’s clients, as they would let me work in their gardens. However, there was one massive difference working at AC. Dad’s clients lived in the British countryside where the earth was usually soaked from recent rain, making it soft and easy to dig. Oklahoma is infamous for its red ground, primarily due to the high red clay content, which compacts the ground. Combine that hard fact with the 90-plus-degree Fahrenheit summer weather, and it does not permit for easy digging sessions.

My supervisor would drop me off and show me where he wanted the hole dug, then leave to check on the other employees working on various projects. I was alone, to contemplate the best way to dig this hole because, apparently, it wasn’t going to dig itself. Is there a “best practice” for digging a hole? I wondered. Maybe there was, but I didn’t know it; the only way I knew to dig is to do exactly that — just dig. It’s simple. If I wanted the hole, I needed to dig the hole, so I picked up the shovel and began.

I drove the shovel into the ground, probably not even an inch deep, then pushed against the shovel to create the first crack. This only removed a tiny amount of dirt. I continued following this process until the hole was a bit deeper, maybe one-foot deep, but definitely not yet enough for the entire root system of a tree to be placed into it. I thought, there must be another way, an easier way, but nothing came to mind. It just had to be hard work. There was no shortcut. No faster way.

This simple task felt like an attack on my grit. I needed to dig this hole and win the battle, so I turned it into a game. How fast can I dig? How much dirt can I remove before my supervisor returns?

In lots of jobs, it is easy to do the bare minimum and try to coast through, but that isn’t an option with digging a hole. It’s either dug to the proper depth or not—no shortcuts. This required resolve, focus, and grit. The only way this hole was to be dug in the time allocated was if I did it with all my might.

Solomon wrote about the need to focus all your might towards achieving your goals in Ecclesiastes 9:10, “Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do [it] with thy might; for [there is] no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, whither thou goest.” The word “might” could also mean “power, force, ability.” Do it with all your power. Do it with all of your ability. Put strong forceful effort into your work. This simple, yet hard process of digging a hole taught me that there is no replacement for hard work plus continuous focused effort! I learned that doing it with your might means to put forth continuous effort until the job is completed, not just a short burst of powerfully concentrated effort leading to burn out. If you want to give the most, and create the best outcome, then you must work with all your might and maintain endurance.

It can be easy to think the small, simple tasks don’t matter as much, or you can take a shortcut this one time. Slacking off and cheating are major problems in our society as many young people are shy of hard work. But through continuous hard work, we can achieve more! God values the process of us putting forth effort into achieving our goals.

The late great Sir Winston Churchill said, ‘Continuous effort—not strength or intelligence—is the key to unlocking our potential.” God has a grand plan for you and me, but He wants to see how much we are willing to work to reach our full potential. Let’s not shrink back when we are faced with hard work, but jump forward, be all in all the time, and dig with all our might! Our reward awaits us on the other side of hard work.