Joel Brown (the founder of Addicted2Success) wrote more than 700 blog posts before he started seriously getting other people to contribute to the site. I tell you this because I have just clocked over one hundred articles, and I feel a bit burnt out.

It’s at this moment when you should double down and work even harder. Writing all of these articles about success has made by brain become like a sponge, and the habits and strategies of success are being planted deeper within my own brain.

“Success only comes when you cross that threshold of pain and rack up the hours required to master your skill”

Last week, a few people commented that I had posted a new, in-depth, blog post every single day. Their observation was spot on. I don’t just write this advice; I live it as well. I have realised that the harder I work, the closer I will get to my dream of inspiring the world through entrepreneurship and personal development.

I posted every day last week because I give a damn about what I’m doing. I don’t do anything else. I have nothing else. This is everything I have right here. Are you hungry enough?

Below are eight reasons why you should get off your butt and work harder:

1. Your dream is not work so it shouldn’t feel like hard work

If this is not true for you, then pick a new dream, start again, and repeat the process. Working hard at something you love should be a walk in the park. When someone tells you to work twice as hard, it should come naturally, and you should be able to find the time in your schedule without hesitation.

The harder you grind away at your dream, the better you should feel. If any sort of resistance starts to form while you increase your workload by five times, then ask yourself what’s holding you back?

Maybe your dream is not what you thought it was, and that’s why you can’t increase the intensity without having a whinge. Do you really want this or not? If you do, then get back to work!

2. Inspiring others is infectious

You can inspire the world by being you. The more you inspire people, the greater your level of fulfillment becomes. Once you hit a certain threshold of success, it becomes easier to up your game. As the inspirational work you do starts to have an effect, you get this infectious energy in return.

This energy can then be used to compound your work effort and reach the extraordinary level of those who receive a standing ovation when they walk into the room. You have to put the work in though early on if you want to reach the threshold.

For a while, it will seem like you are working your butt off and getting nothing in return until you cross that threshold line.

3. Achieving your goal takes more than you think

You will never accomplish big goals unless you work hard. The reason is that there are always going to be people competing for the same dream as you. Look at the sport of basketball. If you want to play in the NBA and train one hour a week, you are guaranteed to fail.

Again, the reason for this is that your competitors will outwork you and their skills, knowledge and agility will increase as a result. You can’t compete with that when you only put in an hour a week.

From the outside, your goals might look easy especially when compared to the successful idols you look up to.

“Don’t be fooled though; success often looks amazingly simple from the outside. It’s only when you get under the covers and work out what strategies and tools you need to duplicate the same results, that you realise how damn hard it is”

This is why you need to work five times harder, to get past these deceiving goal posts that you thought were only a meter away that are in fact one hundred miles away.

4. The 10,000-hour rule

Malcolm Gladwell’s recipe book for success “The Outliers” shows quite clearly that achieving your goals is largely dependant on how much time you spend on them.

He worked out through his research that if you spent 10,000 hours on your passion, you would reach a level of mastery in your field. That’s a lot of hours, so it’s even more incentive to get started right now and work five times harder!

5. All the rewards come at the end

We live in a society that seeks instant gratification the moment we do some small piece of work on our dream. The reality is that you won’t get any benefits from your hard work until you are a long way down the road.

This is why you need to be self-motivated to a point because there is going to be very little external validation for what you’re doing early on. According to Tony Robbins, the average person has to see a brand or company sixteen times before they will remember them or even consider using their products.

If your dream is to start a business, then this statistic should shock you and clarify the reasons why you have to work even harder in the modern world, to get traction, and create results. If you think one measly advertisement on Facebook with a few likes is going to make your dreams come true, then you are sadly mistaken.

The only secret to achieving your goals is to work five times harder than you’re currently working. You need to put the pedal to the metal and crank up some mileage on your dream.

6. Your audience wants to see you work before they commit to your vision

Whatever your mission is, there are going to be an audience of people that you will need to support you. Whether that’s to buy your products or services or to validate your idea, you’re going to need as many people as you can find.

The thing about building an audience is that they want to see you work your ass off before they commit their time and their eyeballs to give a damn about your dream. Getting someone to commit and sign up to join you in battle is harder than you think.

Your audience wants to know that you have put blood sweat and tears into what you’re doing and that you’re not going to give up as soon as they join you because it all gets too hard. There are plenty of people in your field of expertise for these same audience members to mix with, so they don’t need you.

You need them, and you have to show them that you need them, by working five times harder than you currently are. You’ll need to avoid the rest of the zombies and wake up at 4am. That’s how you’ll have enough time to put in the real work.

7. You don’t already have what you want

If you’re reading this advice, then there is a good chance you don’t already have what you want. So when I tell you to double the amount of phone calls you are making to your prospects, you should do it. Because you don’t have what you want, you can never make too many phone calls in the current state you’re in.

Up your game and work harder. When you start to achieve your goals, then you can think about decreasing the number of calls you are making.

8. The naysayers will tear you down if you don’t

There will be a queue of naysayers ready to line up and put you down when you try to achieve your goal. Directly next to them, will be the fans that adore you for what you have done. There will always be two sides. Don’t let the naysayer’s broken dreams gather together and create the strength to knock you off your feet like a boulder out of the Nintendo Game Mario.

Choose to forget the naysayers and visualise what it will be like to hang out with your fans and know that you’re inspiring people with your craft. The only way to push through the negativity that others project onto you is to work harder than you are right now.

When you work harder, you don’t have time to think about the losers who verbally beat you up with their words. Double your results! Work five times harder!

Do you think you might try and work harder? If so, why do you want to? Let me know in the comments section below or on my website timdenning.net or my Facebook.