I don't know a single person who hasn't asked herself/himself, at some point in time, about not getting enough return against her/his hard-work - both in professional life and in personal life.
We feel that we are putting in our best efforts to make it work, but the corresponding returns, in our opinion, are always much lower than our input.
Why it happens?
Obviously, something goes wrong that we have no clue about.
I think, the mismatch between our real effort and perceived effort in every domain of life is perhaps the main cause.
Can we do something to reduce the gap between the two?
Yes we can, by practicing the followings:
Situation Management
Tangible or intangible, any benefit arising from people-to-people interaction is situation specific.
In organizational context, if your effort is evaluated when your boss himself is stressed out for some reason, recognition level would surely be lower than what it could have been in a normal situation. So never ask for a feedback, neither discuss an issue related to your career growth, unless you are sure that your boss is in good frame of mind.
The same principle applies to your personal life as well. Never discuss a critical issue with your partner, when he or she is in bad mood.
Perception Management
You always live your image that gets created in others' mind through your code of conduct. So you are -- how you're being perceived by other person, because, every person with whom you interact, forms an opinion about you.
The outcome of any discussion that you have with any of them, in a particular situation, is influenced to a great extent by his or her perception of you. So, through out your life, you must take care to project and maintain a good image of yourself.
Ego Management
Even a combination of Right Situation and Favorable Perception may not produce the desired result, unless you are a master of handling others ego successfully. Humans are wired to seek importance and recognition from others. If used in right proportion, you can expect some unbelievable result.
Always give due importance to others to make them feel good and satisfy their ego to the best of your capacity. Don't design it, but make it a habit.
That's how you evolve from working hard to working smart!
If you able to follow these above mentioned guideline, I'm sure that in every field of life the gap between your effort and return would come down drastically.
Hard-work is the key to success in life, my parents used to say. They were absolutely right. But, since then, humans have evolved very fast to a stage where just working hard may not produce the desired results anymore. The world we live now recognize smart-work, not just hard-work.
Apply above mentioned techniques to transform your hard-work into smart-work and reduce the gap between effort and result. The less is the gap, more successful you would be.
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