The fourth of the virtues worth discussing, and this one is no less important. In many ways it is more important than some of the others mentioned. Because, the only way to achieve and progress in life is through diligence. There is a reason the phrase is, ‘due diligence’ and this is because all must pay their dues to this virtue. One cannot simply get what one wants in life from nothing, one must always struggle, toil and sacrifice to get further ahead, and the term for this is diligence.
Toiling at something takes time, it takes effort to grow one’s skills in any art, be it cooking, linguistics, painting or writing or poetry or what have you. It happens that in the case of diligence in my view people actually seem to understand the grandeur and importance of this particular virtue.
Most people on the street, if asked if they put in the requisite time and effort into something will answer that ‘I think so’, and humbly admit that they put time into this hobby or that one, or boast loudly of the effort they put in at work. Truth is… they do. Most people are deep down diligent if we’re being honest, and the truth is this is good. In this regard, most people in society have a positive view of diligence and the hard-working, though hard-work itself is somewhat misunderstood these days.
Most try to do a lot of different things at work, and are so busy multi-tasking that they don’t really complete one task before moving to the next. Having observed this in more than one line of work, it is easy to become disgusted and irritated by this, but this is the habit of but a few people. These are the most lazy of individuals, ones who prefer not to do their due diligence in regards to their work. Yet these are the same people who tend to fail upwards as the phrase goes.
It takes effort, it takes patience to finish one task at a time, before moving on to the next. It is rather like swimming, you must throw one arm overhead and cut through the surf before moving the other, and you must remember to kick below the surface. This is all necessary to move forward, at as rapid a pace as possible when underwater, or one could compare the act of diligently accomplishing a task to nurturing a dog.
Dogs by their very nature are diligent, they do everything patiently. Save when they get excited, but at such times they are still loyal and loving. Dogs typically will commit themselves to one act at a time; be it digging, playing, jumping, eating or loving people. They represent the height of all that man can aim for and hope to achieve in terms of nature and goodness.
Diligence means committing yourself body and soul. It means loving what is before you or around you more than yourself. In Japan it is said ‘too many mind’, when you are distracted and are not paying proper attention to something, because you have some form of distraction getting in the way or ego getting in the way of the task at hand you are not being diligent. This is why the Japanese way is best.
Bushido also upholds diligence, and this is for a good reason. The Japanese always have been the ‘Christians of the Orient’ in a way, as their beliefs, ideals and culture best matches the Christian culture of the West of the Middle-Ages. They have long been the most guarded with foreigners but also the most enthusiastic for the positives of the West for a good reason.
It is the diligent French obsession with linguistics that they admire, the reliable Irish-man’s loyalty to his kin that they love, the Spanish dedication to his sea-craft they respect and the Scottish devotion to all before them and nature that they appreciate.
So remember when you have too many mind as they say, empty yourself. If ego gets in the way, as one Nepali wise-man once told me, empty the cup (he compared ego to an overflowing cup). Empty it, and you shall feel better for it.
Ego, distraction, multi-tasking these are the enemies of diligence. Diligence though is not something easily achieved, it is hard and takes a lot of hard work. It is really, really, really hard. In the case of the Japanese it comes easily enough. But we in the West are no longer as accustomed to it.
This is why we must bear in mind that it is a work in progress. If you listen to music while working that’s fine. If you put a movie on in the background that is also fine. But if you stop in the middle of work to drink and never get back to it, that is not good. Remember too many minds’ leads to distraction and failure.
Diligence and patience go hand in hand. Rome wasn’t built in a day, so devote yourself to something one stone at a time.
I will note that it's not merely doing things to completion. It's doing the right things, the things you ought to be doing.
Not sure about it being a virtue, but not doing one's due diligence can lead to undesirable consequences, to be sure. "Due diligence" is often used by me and others to refer to personal responsibility, such as researching an investment before investing (looking before leaping). But this presentation of the term is also valid and in a way a more general application. Whether we are pursuing an interest, applying our efforts to achieving an assigned task, fulfilling our duties on a job, or even in a state of rest, we will get out of it the effort we put into it.