Hard work is for simple people. (Now there’s nothing wrong with being simple)
People throw the terms “work hard” and “hard work” around like candy, diminishing its true value.
It’s very likely that anyone who has said some variation of “work hard and you’ll make it” was either A) sucker B) ignorant C) isn’t the type of successful you want to be.
People like to put “hard work” on a pedestal. This is a misdirection, do not listen. Most of the “rules” of the world are not the case no matter how widely spread the belief in them is.
If you follow the course of working hard you will likely never become as successful as you could’ve otherwise.
Anybody can work hard, there is no value in that. Working hard is for fools, it is too short sighted.
You are a body, and there are more bodies to replace you.
You know what is unique and cannot be replaced? A brain.
I do not need to prove to you that there are plenty of people who do not think before they speak or could use another round of education.
The real rule of life if you want to get ahead is to work smart, not hard, and only when it suits you.
Now, sometimes working smart is easy, other times it’s hard, but it should always be to your benefit or maybe always be to where you would like to go is a better way of saying that.
If the outcome is truly what is important, it shouldn’t matter which direction/method it takes to get there. Why do a lot of work hard for a long time when you could do a little easy work and get to the same place?
Well, some may say that if it’s not hard that you didn’t earn it or that hard work builds character. Some may say that spoils the fun, and I’d be more inclined to agree with that except when you consider that there are some people who love to do speedruns out in the world.
You may go through life however you like as you well know, but I wonder how often you ask yourself
“What is the easiest way that I can get this done?”
Naysayers will call that lazy, but that is not lazy. Lazy is doing nothing.
Not thinking anything is worth the effort. .
Choosing to do nothing over doing easy things that would really help them in the long run..
That is lazy.
Easy isn’t lazy because to figure out how to make it easy you need to use your brain. Being lazy requires little mental energy.
Movers and shakers, they do things that get results for themselves. Regardless of the difficulty of the work, they faced that work head on because they wanted what was on the other end.
Difficulty doesn’t matter so much as what you want.
To get what you want, you have to do what you have to do– but I needen’t remind you that there are many ways to skin a cat.
You need to find the best way for YOU. That’s working smart and pondering your options when taking the best course of action It is the difference between speaking with no filter and thinking before you speak.
You need to weigh your specific situation. The acceptable ratios of time/precision/accuracy/cleanliness/etc are different depending on what you’re dealing with.
Thinking smart allows you a few benefits. It allows you to progress through objectives more quickly.
As you continue to think of more efficient workflows, more difficult problems tend to rise over time. This is because you have honed your mind and continuing down the path has allowed you to grow as well as the level of obstacles you’re able to handle.
I say this in two different ways in an attempt to convey that while it will always seem like higher “stakes” the ratio will remain the same.
What changes is your relation to what used to be your “hardest” problems. Suddenly you are ready/capable to face those without even looking while back in the day the work was hard and the reward was great. Hopefully you see the correlation here.
Your time and effort spent will drop and what’s great is that time and effort ≠ hard necessarily. So your easy work will get easier.
As you continue down the path that you choose it is likely you will continue to face the same problems in that, once a new problem is encountered it will pop up repeatedly over time.
As these problems spring up you will initially stick to the methods that you know as those are the methods that have allowed for your survival.
In continuing to use those methods it is without a doubt that they will become second nature and you will eventually start to feel their repetitiveness begin to weigh on you.
It is when this happens that you will begin to have the time/ability to think smart. You will begin to explore things like:
The Power of Shortcuts
To optimally think smart or take the “easy” way out you must utilize the power of shortcuts. You will not really be thinking smart enough if you aren’t using every tool at your disposal.
Don’t take heart by the looks or thoughts you may get from others from taking shortcuts. The path you choose to take is your own and is none of their business, plus you only take paths that are acceptable to take, how could anyone justifiably fault for you taking a path that they could as well?
You can certainly not argue against the art of taking shortcuts once you are able to view the taking of shortcuts/deviation from the originated/standard path as learning.
Taking shortcuts is the method of growing new knowledge regarding a certain subject. It is getting to know something so well that you now find alternative ways to the objective. Whether that be through your own brainchild/wonders or any other method you will learn many methods, not only that but then you will begin to expand on them should your interest persist.
If you are in the working world it is only to your benefit to take (successful) shortcuts. Whether you serve a boss or whether you are your own boss it is in your interest to learn the best ways to do your work, if only for your ability to spend more time doing other things while completing the same amount of work in less time.
Though I expect some of you are more “virtuous” than this and would like to continue expanding on what you were able to do previously. Should you find and know when to use the proper shortcuts for obtaining the desired/necessary results then you will save yourself/your boss time, if you save time you save money, if you save money that means you’re making more of it. It’s a win-win no matter who/where you are.
If you are alive and don’t work in technology, I highly suggest you learn the shortcuts for common computer and phone applications.
If you are alive and do work in technology, I highly suggest you learn all of the shortcuts of the programs/hardware specific to your industry.
I work in the technology/media industry. Shortcuts on a keyboard show the difference between a layman and a professional (this translates to any non computer skill as well). Any schlub from down the block can point and click with a mouse down the menu options, FLEX THAT BRAIN and let me see you use your memorized key commands that don’t even make any sense and show me I’ve found a person that works quickly, efficiently, and goes above and beyond the typical call of duty.
Working Hard Doesn’t Pay Off
Working hard won’t get you far. I’m sure you’ve seen people who have “worked hard their entire life” and not end up where they wanted.
You looked at these people and you wanted to respect them, and yet there was something often melancholic about them. You’ve seen it before yourself in your younger days where you worked your tail off and yet were seemingly unrewarded.
Working smart, not hard is what pays off. The sooner you begin working smart, the sooner you can begin reaping the benefits.
There is one suggestion I have for those who require some direction as to where they want to start working smart: start with something that you like. Whatever it is go start finding out everything you can about it.
Read the manual if it’s available, research it on the internet, read up on forums, read/listen to books/audiobooks/podcasts. Do what you need to do to learn everything you can about what you need to. Branching off into how it works “under the hood” or with peripheral operations.
Doing this with something you truly like should be similar to curing a feeling of hunger. It will be something that you can do, get lost in, and seemingly feel no sense of the hours passing.
You can just as easily do this with something your don’t like, but if that is what you are trying to do your tip is different: learn to love it.
Whatever it is you’re trying to do, learn to love it. If it annoys you, attempt to see it as a pesky child. They can’t help but annoy you, but you really end up loving them for who they are anyway.
This is true of mostly anything/everything: learn enough about it a.k.a. spend enough time with it and you will begin to love it, even if you hated it before or thought you could never love it.
Ever heard of stockholm syndrome? Or had annoying pets? Or spent enough time with someone you hated that when they went away you missed them because even though you were at odds you had an understanding of each other, learned that while you disagree you can still know each other, and be sad when they were no longer around? Ever been in a class and upset at not getting it only for it to suddenly click and you get more excited as it happens?
Understanding of anything can often be difficult to grasp, especially at first, which is why our feelings of dislike can be rooted so quickly– we can easily say that we don’t like it or need to take it as a knee-jerk reaction to allow us to not expend the energy to continue trying or let ourselves be fooled by failure (which of course is to be expected when starting ANYTHING new initially but we conveniently forget this).
Let me tell you a fact so that you are no longer playing ignorant and will be forced to take action or formally acknowledge that you are willingly slacking: You can become a master of anything with enough time and patience.
Again, You can become a master of anything with enough time and patience.
Let yourself fail, even in failing you get understanding in learning what not to do. Become familiar with failure and you will continue on and begin to become familiar with success.
Work smart and learn what you do need to do and what you don’t need to do to get where you’re trying to go.
Never forget, the pen is mightier than the sword. Why?
All the best,
FCP 🙃
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