There is a common belief that there is no success, or happiness, in life without hard work. I think this can be confusing because I can see that there are at least two different ways "hard work" might appear.
There is the "hard work" that perhaps is the first perception that comes to mind for most of us. It usually involves: having to motivate ourselves to do something; a feeling of exhaustion; the overriding essence of needing to rush or push; a battle with procrastination; and the resentment of the work, or others, as we try to complete it. The main joy from this hard work is when the work is done and it gives us a short-term-pop feeling of accomplishment. It usually lies in the category of a should, in other words if we felt we had any choice in the matter we would probably be doing something else. Our motivator for even bothering with it is usually money, or the acceptance from others, or fear of what might happen if we don't do it.
Then there is the "hard work" that I would consider the LOP definition. It is when we are mesmerized by doing something that excites us, and we just can't seem to pull away from it because one great idea after another keeps flowing forth and we are eager to capture them all. We can spend hours at something and we just feel more energized by it, and we are so focused and present with what we are doing our mind does not drift to regrets of the past or worries of the future. We appreciate the end result but we also love the process that it involved. The overriding essence is fun, or creativity, or passion. Our motivator for doing it is usually an internal inspiration, a knowing feeling, the unstoppable oozing of who we really are wanting to express out into the world -- not necessarily to achieve anything, but just because it feels so good to express it.
Lou Tice described these two ways of being by comparing what a child can be like on a school day morning and on Christmas morning. One full of resistance, procrastination and complaining and the other enthusiasm, energy and joy.
We may look at someone and think they are "working hard" when actually they are having a LOP Christmas morning.