So now that we’ve finally got a handle of setting and achieving goals we can move on to the other two parts of success, though really these two things should be seen as equal parts of a single thing. But first, let me ask you a question.
Who is going to be more successful?
The person who works hard but not smart?
The person who works smart but not hard?
It’s not a trick question. Obviously a lot of which is going to be more successful depends on how we define each. What do we define as working hard? What do we define as working smart? Likewise what do we define as not working hard? What do we define as not working smart?
Hard work is pretty basic. You put the work in. You show up each and every day and do what needs to be done come rain, sleet, or whatever may be.
We’ve all seen hardworking people before. Many of us probably had a grandfather that was something like this. Work early in the morning to late at night, dusk to down, the man seemed to be able to summon limitless endurance. I know I had family like this and as a kid wondered how they managed it.
I remember being drop dead tired as a teen and my grandfather still plugging away at things. I remember thinking “What the hell?” after all I was a three sport athlete and spent quite a considerable time at the gym, yet was still getting outworked by an “old man”. But that’s a story for another time.
And what is working smart?
It means looking at success patterns and learning from them, at least that’s what working smart is at its most fundamental form.
So which is more important?
Neither.
If you really pressed me I’d say smart, but ultimately one doesn’t matter without the other. You have to work smart and you have to work hard if you want to succeed. Now if all you do is go out and work hard, hard, hard you might get somewhere if you have the right factors going in your favor but most likely you won’t go very far.
Likewise if someone works smart and applies even just minimal effort they’ll go far further than the person who just simply puts their head down and grinds it out working hard. Plenty of hard working people are broke and without options. People who work smart? Sure there are some but they generally do not stay broke for very long periods of time.
But we’re getting off track.
So what’s the virtuous cycle of success? Working hard and working smart?
Sure but it goes deeper than that.
The Virtuous Cycle Of Success
So yes you have to work smart and work hard, that’s not a revelation I hope. But what does that concretely look like? How do you work hard? Work smart? How do you ensure that you are doing both? Essentially it means you have two things that are flowing together and bringing you closer to your goals. Let’s break that down a little more.
You need two things.
Action and knowledge.
And these two things need to flow into each other and reinforce one another. Like inhaling and exhaling. If someone asked “Hey, which is better, inhaling or exhaling?” you’d just sort of give them a strange look and for good reason. It’s the same with knowledge and action. Each day, or as much as possible, you should be gaining knowledge on how to more effectively and efficiently go after your goals while also taking action, working hard, to accomplish those goals.
Which ties into how we set up goals in the last two parts of the series. What does this look like concretely?
Working Hard – The single biggest thing with working hard is writing out daily goals that’ll move you closer to your medium and large goals and then hitting them as often as possible. Do the work on writing out your large, medium, and small/weekly goals first and then build from that. You should have a list of daily habits that’ll guide you to success, with some one times things added here and there as they come up.
Working Smart – Look at your large goal. Alright, now look at what knowledge that you need to accomplish that goal. Think you already know enough? You’re wrong, dead wrong. You can never know enough. Take courses, read books, get hands on training, do whatever you can to further your knowledge in places that are related to your goals.
Combine the knowledge/action cycle with the goal setting and you have a potent system to have success in just about any field that you can dream of.
Along as you have one more ingredient.
The Secret Ingredient
The secret ingredient to success is doing the right things over and over again. Dedication, consistency, whatever you want to call it. That’s the secret ingredient. It’s great that you have your goals dialed in and are on the action/knowledge cycle. But if you do that for a week it’s not going to make much of a difference. Do it for 3 months and you’ll see a difference. Do it for 3 years and you’ll be a completely different person. Do if for a decade and you’ll have changed the trajectory of your life entirely.
Harness these tools and use them.
And achieve the success that you want.
If anything I said here interests you I’d highly recommend you check out The Ultimate Alpha Collection which is a compilation of 16 of my books for the price of 5. It covers everything from being a man to making money to getting the right mindset to getting girls to fighting and more and is a resource no man should be without. Pick up your copy today!
-Charles Sledge
