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4 Principles That Convey What Working Hard & Smart Really Means

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Everybody who has looked on social media for some inspiration has come across the quote, “Don’t work hard, work smart”. When you scroll down to the comment section under the post you find people commenting; ‘why not do both?’ These people couldn’t be more accurate than proposing to work hard and smart at the same time. But still, this description to achieve success is still vague and it doesn’t give you any practical advice. Everyone has his or her own definition about working hard and being smart, so what does this exactly mean?

The phenomenon that provides a clear answer to these vague descriptions about working hard and smart is called deliberate practice. Simply said, deliberate practice is the conscious decision to better yourself every day and it separates the successful from the unsuccessful people. Thankfully, deliberate practice has nothing to do with being gifted or being born in the right environment. It has everything to do with working smart and hard…but the right way.

Below are 4 principles that convey what working ‘hard & smart’ really means:

1. Focus on specific aspects

Don’t try to become better at everything all at once. Instead, focus on the areas that you need to improve. One thing many successful people are able to do is separate their strengths from their weaknesses so that they get a clear and truthful overview of their capabilities. To get a good overview of your own capabilities, ask people who are close to you to their opinions on what your best qualities are and in which other areas you can improve.

Furthermore, also reflect back on your own journey to find out what went well and where things got difficult. By really targeting the areas you need  to improve, you’ll be a lot more efficient and therefore you will make much more progress than just improving something based on your intuition.

“Life is about growing and improving and getting better.” – Conor McGregor

2. Practicing creates progress

If you’re an athlete and you need to improve your physique, go to the gym more often. If you’re an entrepreneur and you need to become more skilled in a certain area, practice more. The only way to become better at something is to repeat the process, until you don’t want to do it anymore. And even then you still have to be disciplined enough to do the same thing over and over again.

Every successful person had to focus on his/her craft first before they could show to the world how great they were. It’s only when you’ve trained or practiced something enough that your skill level will become above-average. Otherwise you’ll just be good, not great. Lasting success won’t come easy and it certainly won’t come to you when you decide to quit when times get hard.

 

3. Find someone who is better

This is very important to achieve success much faster. Every person who has become immensely successful had someone they could learn from. Tiger Woods & Wolfgang Mozart had their fathers as mentors. Warren Buffet was being mentored by Alexander Graham to become known as the ‘Oracle of Omaha’.

These mentors were like teachers to them. They always saw room for improvement in their protégé’s and they made sure they didn’t make the same mistakes as they did. So, essentially they reduced the learning curve and therefore they progressed much faster than when without a mentor. 
Luckily, in today’s world it’s not necessary anymore to find a person who has already accomplished what you want to achieve. So many successful people in all areas of life have written down what they did and how they did it. If you can’t find a real-life mentor use books as a reflection on your own process. Study the processes of the people who are authorities in your niche and try to associate it to your own journey.

“The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The great teacher inspires.” – William Arthur Ward

4. It takes mental focus

Hustling isn’t supposed to be fun if you’re doing it the right way. You have to make sacrifices, you have to overcome obstacles, you need to practice until the point that you want to quit, and you have to deal with people’s misunderstandings and misconceptions of your behavior.

These are just a few obstacles of the many that you’ll face when you’re on the road to success. That’s why you need to be mentally strong, because if you get scared easily by all these different distractions, then becoming successful will be even harder than it already is.

What are your thoughts on the saying “Don’t work hard, work smart?” Leave your thoughts below!

 

Image Courtesy of Twenty20.com

Krishan Kalpoe is the founder of Shrinksdom & an aspiring psychologist who has a passion for personal development and wants to share his knowledge with the world for the purpose of making people's lives better. His website consists of personal development advice about the three fundamentals in life that we all need to live a happy life: love, success and wisdom. Take a look at his website or his Instagram.

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Success Advice

How Your Beliefs Can Supercharge or Sabotage Your Success

Your life is dictated by beliefs and biases that drive your thinking, behaviors, and decisions

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Your Beliefs Can Supercharge or Sabotage Your Success (1)
Image Credit: Midjourney

Pause for a moment and ponder two pandemic-era beliefs: First, closing schools will control the spread of a serious virus. Second, the consequences of such school closures—particularly social interruption and the prevention of immunity—are worse than becoming sick with the virus. (more…)

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How to Break the Cycles of Mediocrity and Manifest Your Greatness

There is no greatness without becoming and there is no becoming with authenticity

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Image Credit: Midjourney

In just a few weeks, we will be wrapping up 2023. Can you believe it? This year has been absolutely incredible for me.

I have seen amazing doors opened, new relationships formed and I am seeing dreams realized in my life. While this seems like the hallmarks of a great year, this has also been the most challenging year of my life. With all of the change happening in my life, I have been forced out of my comfort zone and challenged to grow in every area of my life.

I can truly say that I have made the most of my moments this year and I have used everything as a catalyst for maximizing my greatest potential.

As a revolutionary leader, I have the pleasure of consulting and advising leaders around the world to fulfill purpose, realize their greatest potential and make an impact.

I want to share some insights with you that will help you to break cycles of mediocrity and manifest your greatness

Everything legal must come through the matrix

I am sure that some of you are wondering why I am using the term matrix. However, what you have to understand is that I am trying to make a highly complex spiritual principle practical to understand.

Regardless of your spiritual beliefs, every life has an origin and I believe that origin is divine and begins with eternity. You are birthed from eternity and into time to fulfill a unique purpose and assignment in your lifetime and generation.

The matrix is simply the portal or vehicle that brings something out of the invisible realm and into tangible form. The problem with much of the teaching today is that it excludes the matrix. We are told to believe that success is instantaneous and overnight.

Nobody talks about how a dream progresses through stages beginning with visualization and ultimately culminating in manifestation. Without a matrix or portal then everything that you attempt to birth and build will be illegal.

The matrix not only makes you legal but it gives you the authority and power to function as the greatest expression of who you were created to be. 

Every matrix has an incubation process

While many people admire and respect me today, I remember a time when nobody knew who I was or the significance of my message. How did I get to where I am today? I got here through an incubation process.

In other words, everything that has been destined for your life is incubating and awaiting a set time of manifestation. The problem is that most people live their entire lives idle and never initiate the incubation process.

What do I meany by that? Most people are living reckless and very few people are living intentionally. I am amazed at the number of people I have conversations with that have no vision, goals or strategies for their lives. They show great promise and they have undeniable potential.

However, without development they will die with their dreams still in them.

Everything that has been destined for your life must be incubated and converted to become realities born to time. 

“Visualize this thing that you want, see it, feel it, believe in it. Make your mental blueprint and begin to build.” – Robert Collier

You must give expression to that which is not yet born to time

When you think about a matrix or a prophetic incubation process, you have to understand that potential is often unrealized and untapped. In other words, your potential is in raw form and your potential cannot serve you as long as it is untapped.

The thing that makes me valuable is that I have the ability to convert potential into power. I have done it in my own life and I have empowered leaders around the world to do the same. How do you convert potential into power?

First, it is important to note that you have to perceive potential. If you cannot perceive your potential then you can never cultivate your potential. In addition, you must take the time to cultivate your potential. We often get excited about our capabilities; however, we never expand our capacity in order to realize our greatest potential.

In other words, the strength of your potential is only discovered through your willingness to stretch. The more we are challenged the more we are empowered to expand our capacity for greatness. Most of all, you must begin to express your potential. The expression of potential is different for every person.

For example, the expression of my potential is best demonstrated through the thoughts, ideas, products, services, books, etc.

For another person the expression of potential may look like a screenplay, artwork, sports, scientific discoveries, medical breakthroughs, etc.

Regardless of the form of expression, I know that you will live empty and unfulfilled until you make the decision to express your potential. The expression of your potential gives voice to your dreams, life to your vision, significance to your moments and activates your true power.

You must manifest your greatness

As a revolutionary thinker and leader, my work has impacted people around the world. I am grateful that my life is a source of empowerment to so many people. However, before anyone could ever benefit from my life, I had to make a non-negotiable decision to become who I was born to be.

I wish I could tell you that this journey is easy and that you will get there overnight. However, in a world that celebrates us for doing we are often criticized for being. As a result, I wasted a lot of time trying to be who other people wanted me to be instead of being who I was born to be.

There is no greatness without becoming and there is no becoming with authenticity. It is through our bravery to be vulnerable that we ultimately manifest our greatness. We do not bless the world by being a duplicate. We bless the world when we honor our difference. When you honor your difference you honor your potential.

Ultimately, your difference is how you manifest your greatness.

When you present anything but your authentic self to the world, you are playing small and you are robbing the world of your significance. Manifesting your greatness requires you to master your gifts.

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Success Advice

Here’s a Young Man’s Antidote for the Uncertainty of the Modern World

Why do a lot of young guys lack confidence in today’s world? 

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How to boost your confidence
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We all have been told that confidence is a key factor in achieving success and happiness in life. But what is it exactly? (more…)

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Toxic Leadership: 5 Ways to Identify a Bad Leader

if you have a leader who displays any of the toxic traits, it’s time to move on to greener pastures.

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Image Credit: Midjourney

Let’s be honest, we’ve all crossed paths with a toxic leader in our careers at some point. Unfortunately, while some toxic leaders don’t even bother to hide their behaviour, some know very well how to conceal their true selves behind a strong-built facade. The latter is the most dangerous of the two. (more…)

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