The myth of hard work

We were taught that with hard work only comes success. We were taught that if we want to become happy, fulfilled, successful, important and people of real value, we had to work our asses off every single day, put in an enormous hours of work, always try to stay ahead of competition and to keep doing that even after we achieve our goals in order to stay at the top.

Believe me, this approach is not worth it. A lot of people have achieved their goals through hard work but at what expense? They’re still not happy, not fulfilled, they don’t feel enough, and they keep trying to reach a destination that only seems to be going further.

If you are not happy during the process, probably you won’t be happy after the achievement. You’ll just feel satisfied, but that satisfaction won’t last long and soon enough you’ll feel the emptiness within you again.

This is something that a lot of people experience today. They think that something material, something external will fill the hole within them. It will not.

We are the only ones that can fill our emptiness within, we are the only ones that can make ourselves feel worthy and we are the only ones that can make ourselves fulfilled. Nothing external can make that for you.

Every accomplishment outside of you will be short-lived. Don’t wait for a future event to make you happy. You can be happy right now. We want to achieve our goals for the feeling for the feeling that comes afterwards. Everything we do is for the feeling of fulfillment.

You can feel fulfilled right now. That does not mean you give up your goals. You just change your approach and mentality while pursuing them.

Success is not a marathon. Success is short daily sprint. Small daily wins that add up overtime and give to the others the image of big success.

You don’t have to and you cannot actually accomplish something if you are in rush. The results that you’ll get will be mediocre.

If you want to write a book for example, focus on the smallest and easiest thing that you can do today. It might be writing a paragraph. Focus on writing a paragraph a day and forget about the book. When you get used to it and you feel that you can do more, start writing a page a day. Don’t think about the end product at all. Keep your focus only on the task.

If you want to get fit, focus on the smallest and easiest thing that you can do today. 5 pushups? Go for a walk? Not eating that cookie? Whatever it is focus on that task day by day. When you get used to it and feel that you can do more, start doing more. Forget about the ideal body and focus only on the task.

Whatever you end goal is forget it and focus only on the task that will take you there anyway. When you change your mindset from goal-oriented to systems-oriented, not only you’ll find it very easy and enjoyable to work on your project, you can work on more than 1 projects per day

You’ll have more energy and be motivated to continue once you get into the habit of accomplishing your daily tasks. Small incremental daily wins add up and lead to exponential results, without you having to stress because you did not arrived to your desired destination yet.

Hard work anyway is hard because of the stress and the rashness. You can be more productive and get better results if you are relaxed and do the necessary daily work without attachments and without being in rush and in stress. Being present.

Being in stress changes nothing but makes things worse over time, not only for the project and the team that you’re working with, but for yourself as well.

Hard work is mental. You can do so much more physically when your mental state is in check, when you are relaxed and know that these systems that you have adopted, the daily tasks, will take care of the results for you.

When I adopted the systems mindset, and stopped being in stress and in rush in my job, my boss thought that I didn’t care anymore. The reality was, I was doing more and getting better results but because I didn’t look stressed, they thought that I don’t care anymore.

That’s how the world is wired. People think that being in stress is productive. That’s not sustainable and not healthy. When you forget about end goals and adopt the systems mindset, and when you forget about results and focus only on the daily tasks, big results come as a byproduct anyway, and you stay healthy and motivated to go even further.

Bottom line is, hard work is mental. Hard work feels hard because of the the stress. Just focus on the daily work that will take you where you want to go, and enjoy the process. Don’t work hard, but smart. Be present, do the work and relax.

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