Working hard or hardly working?

I had an interesting conversation recently with a coworker. As seems to happen with colleagues, the conversation turned to "work." We began discussing the difference between hard work and smart work--which are two completely different things.

It seems all of our lives we are told to work hard or work harder, as if hard work makes up for all else. I would like to submit and ask why we are not told to work smart or work smarter instead? Smart work outdoes hard work any day of the week.

My coworker used a great analogy to prove this point. He related an experience where he went rock climbing. He had never before been and so he was doing what he believed to be the right way to climb--working hard to scale upwards. After a short period of time he said that he became tired, exhausted even, and his brother down below (who was belaying him) shouted, "hey, use your legs!" All this time he had been using his arms to pull himself up, instead of using his legs to lift himself. As be started using his legs to lift, and his arms only as guides, the task of climbing became easier.

Now, was he working any harder when he started to use his legs instead of his arms to climb? No. He was working smarter; and by working smarter he in actuality did not have to work as hard. Is hard work important? Absolutely. However, it really is no substitute for smart work.