Many people will tell you that in order to be successful, you must work hard. In practice, however, the people who work the hardest while breaking their bodies are not the most successful.
Before I go any further, let me clarify that I am not suggesting that you should not work. To eat and pay your bills, you must first work. Getting busy with work that helps you achieve your goals or dreams is also beneficial and provides you with a feeling of purpose. Some people never retire because they are so passionate about what they do. The argument I’m trying to make is to be careful not to overwork to the point where the work you perform wrecks your bodily and mental health for a reward that may or may not come into your life.
Who puts in the most work?
Let me ask you a question. Who do you believe puts in the most work and time? A large corporation’s president, a construction worker, a soldier, or a miner? And who earns the most money while putting their health at much less risk? Hard labor is not and has never been the road to prosperity. If you put in longer hours at work, it just means you required more time to accomplish your assignment or you have an issue with being a perfectionist, which is not efficient at all.
“I advise all the young kids to not overwork. You can’t be out there blowing hard. You have to pace yourself.” – Freddie Hubbard
I’m not denying the fact that every profession takes a talent, and some people just do not have the circumstances or opportunities to advance to particular positions, however, if you only compare the number of working hours, how much they earn, and how much they risk their safety performing their job, you can conclude that professions that demand a lot of physical labor, stress, or a high risk of injury, and are particularly frequent in companies that overwork their employees, have poor retirement prospects.
Working harder than everyone else often leads to you breaking your back, filling your thoughts with stress, anxiety, frustration, and dread, and damaging your health faster than everyone else. Some nations that are infamous for overworking their employees tend to rank lower in the happiness measure and higher in the statistics for suicide or heart attacks. I don’t see the logic in dying from overwork before you can obtain the benefits.
Take action in a smart way.
I’m not saying you should never work and be lazy, squander your time, and lay on the ground hoping for a miracle like walking on the street and finding a bag full of gold and diamonds. You need to take action for things to happen. There are two extremes: being lazy and being overworked. It is preferable to operate in the middle. Work smart to achieve your goals without damaging your body or mind in the process.
“Smart people focus on the right things.” – Jensen Huang
The supporters of the work-hard attitude are enthusiastic about claiming that they will reap the benefits tomorrow. But what if “tomorrow” never arrives? Not to sound excessively pessimistic, but I’m simply trying to be realistic. Life may be harsh and unpredictable at times. No one really knows when they will fall ill, unexpected events like a global pandemic, a crime, an accident, or a heart attack for working too much. In some circumstances, the people who worked really hard are never able to reap the benefits.
Most people work for decades because they are promised that if they work hard for forty years or more, they would be able to retire when they are seventy. I don’t know how much energy, motivation, strength, or health you’ll have when you’re in your seventies. That is for those who survive long enough to reach that age. The veteran cop or detective who perish on the job one week before retirement is a recurrent movie cliche. Is done either for laughs or drama, but I believe there is a reason they constantly play that event, and that reason is that it is a true dread that many people experience. Imagine working for decades and never getting to enjoy your sweet retirement.
Overwork is bad for the body and mind.
Working too hard creates dozens of new health problems. You become too fatigued and lack the energy to take care of yourself. Overworking depletes your immune system, rendering you vulnerable to illness. Panic and anxiety attacks affect certain people. You get fewer sleeping hours. You begin to feel overwhelmed by worry, despair, and pessimism about your future since work is the only thing in your life.
People literally work themselves to death or incapacity. In Japan, they have the term “Karoshi”, which means “overwork death”. The most prevalent causes are excessive stress levels, which lead to heart attacks, or poor nutrition as a result of skipping meals. Some also take their own life because they can’t handle the extreme stress, high expectations, and toxic work schedule with fewer vacations or breaks.
Overworking messes with your productivity.
Overworking may also affect your productivity. If you’re too tired and burned out you will lose focus on your task. If you push yourself to your limits without taking any breaks, your mind will wander and you will lose interest in your job. If you work long hours yet your productivity per hour is lower than average, this affects your labor productivity, then you are simply working for the purpose of working without producing decent results. It’s better when one is able to understand their own limits and has the freedom to decide when and for how long one will work.
Overwork puts a strain on your mind, affecting your creativity. Some of the best moments of inspiration occur while we are not working, such as when we are walking, traveling, exercising, relaxing, or performing another activity not related to our work.
Working full-time may be demanding in a variety of ways, so striking a balance between job and family or social life is vital.
Overworking, on the other hand, comes with its own set of hazards that go far beyond the usual stress of job demands or office politics. Overworking, in truth, puts people at danger of experiencing mood swings and losing interest in their hobbies or extracurricular activities. You no longer have time to do the things you wanted to accomplish. It is critical to set some time for yourself. Reclaim the time you used to spend with your loved ones.
Companies are demanding more of their employees.
Working 40 hours a week was once thought to be sufficient. Today, however, this is far from the case. Several studies demonstrate that we are living in a moment in history when employees are among the hardest-working people. While technology has advanced, the number of hours some employers need of their employees has become worse. More workers are realizing that attempting to climb the corporate ladder is no longer a safe bet. It is quite unusual for someone to work their whole working life for the same company; this is especially true for young individuals, who prefer to jump from job to job. Global events have changed economies, causing widespread layoffs. All of the time, effort, and hard work put into a company becomes meaningless.
Most companies’ rigid frameworks do not truly reward hard workers.
People are paid per hour rather than by the amount or quality of work they complete. Even if you do the job faster than everyone else, you are not permitted to leave early. Usually, they will only pile extra work on your desk. Some employers do not even pay overtime when they require their employees to work longer hours; if you refuse to work extra hours, you are fired.
Extreme hustle culture is one of the leading causes of overwork. This kind of thinking makes people feel bad if they spend too much time or focus on things that have nothing to do with their job or profession. Some people work so much that they don’t even have the time to spend with their families, which can lead to divorces or neglected connections with friends. People are so busy working they can’t even spend the money they make. Workers have forgotten what it is like to relax, unwind and enjoy their life. People must question what motivated them to work in the first place and what their priorities are.
The term “hard work”.
Let’s look at the definition of hard work. The term “hard” has several meanings. One definition of hard is “solid, unyielding, or tight.” However, another definition of hard is anything difficult to achieve or accomplish, as well as something tedious, tiring, or bothersome. When someone says “I had a hard day”, that means they had a day with lots of difficulties. Whenever some people hear the word “hard work,” the first thing that comes to mind is of exhausting, troublesome, and difficult job. Who truly wants that? When people talk about hard work, I believe they are actually referring to smart work. After all, who wants to be known as the person who remained the longest and pushed the most rocks and mud all day?
A sad reality about working hard that is rarely discussed is that hard work does not always pay off. Working hard does not guarantee success or results.
All of your efforts may be futile. I speak from personal experience. Years ago, I devoted a lot of time and attention to a personal project that just did not produce the outcomes I needed or wanted. I didn’t obtain any concrete outcomes, but at least I did learn from the experience. The world doesn’t care how many hours of your life you devote to something, it only cares about results. Someone can work less than you and achieve greater success via pure luck, nepotism, connections, or opportunity than most individuals we know. Companies may terminate the majority of their hardworking employees and retain only those who produced the ideal results or had the best affiliations.
How you can work smart, instead of working hard?
In one of my favorite books, “the richest man of Babylon”, there’s this saying, “make your money work for you”. This is in contrast to how many people are just working for their money. Using what you earn to make more money or use it to delegate work to other people.
Whenever you have spare money, you have two choices.
Option 1: You spend that money on things that give you instant gratification, but that won’t make you extra money in the future. Some luxuries you don’t really need, like expensive clothing, buying a bigger TV, the latest new technology product, gambling, playing the lottery, or anything similar.
Option 2: You can plan carefully and use that money for investing. Now investing also has a risk, but in the end is a more safe option than putting your money on the lottery or gambling, since the house always wins. You can try to just raise your dividends with time. Imagine gaining an extra 100 or 200 dollars each month. And you can raise that extra amount little by little. Or you can use that money to hire an assistant, a virtual assistant, or outsource some of your work, so you have less work on your shoulders.
Understand How to Delegate.
For example, if you make videos, you can focus on only being in front of the camera and then pay someone to edit your videos. That way you can focus on more content without spending some hours in the edition process. If you are an influencer or celebrity, you can have a community manager for your social media. Streamers have moderators and people who help them with any technical problems. Actors have agents, acting coaches, and stunt doubles. Company executives have assistants and people to delegate their work, etc.
People get successful by designing a system, hiring others, or solving a problem that automates their labor, rather than spending hours working on a single task over and over. To increase productivity, smart working needs self-evaluation and develop a method to improve the workflow. Improve your results and get more rest by doing less but in a smart way. Your objective is to find ways to optimize your resources and time to complete the task.
You may work smarter by setting reasonable objectives and challenging yourself to succeed. Stay organized. When you work intelligently rather than hard, you make better judgments and get better outcomes. Don’t be lazy, but don’t work on someone else’s plan. Don’t let yourself or others overwork you. Find out what you want to do rather than what you think you should do.
Find inspiration.
Try something different from what you usually do, to get a new perspective, allow me to tell you a short story: “As Elizabeth sits at her desk, writing out the outline for her book, she looks over at her neighbor who has her headphones on working on a crossword puzzle. She’s been working non-stop for the past month and it’s affecting both her mood and work. They’re similar in their work ethics and yet they approach it in different ways. Elizabeth realizes she needs to get away from writing and take a walk to get some fresh air, which is what she should have done the week before when she experienced writer’s block. She goes back to her book outline with renewed focus, completing it by lunchtime.”
In conclusion.
I don’t understand why some people think it’s important to brag about how many hours they put into their work. This just means they need more hours than the rest to finish something. You’re trading your time for money. Money can leave you and then return, but time only moves in one direction. You can’t recover that time back. If time could be bought with money, I assure you, most rich people will gladly exchange most of their fortunes if they could get 5 or 10 years back. But, until that technology is available, time is flowing in the same current for everyone.
Imagine working fewer hours and still accomplishing more than you would by working long hours. The best approach is to sit back and consider what is truly important to you. Are you working for money or for reputation? Do you work to be happy or fulfilled? Prioritize what is most important. When you prioritize what is most important, you make better decisions and get better outcomes. You may do this by recognizing and focusing on the most important aspects of your life. You must consider what is the healthy amount of work you can take, and recognize when you need a well-deserved break.
Are you ready to work smart, or will you keep pushing a boulder doing the same things over and over?