Why hard work is not enough...

We have all heard the statement:
If you work hard enough, you can do anything.

Yet by itself, to me, this is a lie.

Yes, hard work is essential to achieving your goals. It is possible though, to work yourself to death and never get anywhere. To always run in circles.

I have observed the following:
The lazy genius will normally hire someone else to do the hard work for them.
So its better to be lazy and work smart. Than to work hard without thinking.

How do you know whether you are working smart? Simple. Are you increasing your income or are you decreasing the required time and effort to achieve the same results.

I have asked people if they have a plan in life and often they say yes. They can even list them.
Yet they constantly need to borrow money from other people to get by. They never have time and they never have money.

That tells me they have a poor plan in life, literally. They are not using their mind to optimize their life. To do take on things that will actually make a difference. I even admit, some of these people can work just as hard or even harder than I do. They often have no choice for the sake of survival. They lack a proper plan and this stops them from progressing in life.

I am very fortunate. I have my dream job. Every day I walk past general public servants. People who work far harder than I do. Who struggle in life. People who are considered lower class. I had to ask: Why do they suffer financially if they are able to work so hard? My conclusion was: They have a bad plan in life. They are not working smart. Some of them have no plan at all.

Now I know life happens and sometimes there's hard seasons. Sometimes people with great qualifications need to take on jobs that's far below their education to be able to provide. This is normal and I believe everyone experience this. But a person should not stay there forever.

In most cases when someone suddenly has a breakthrough in their career. Its often not that they started working harder. Its normally that they change their plan. They decided to work smarter. This is what New Years resolutions is normally about. Changing the plan.

In life it is far more important to work smart: to have a plan, than it is to work hard. Because you can spend years working hard on someone else's plan. On someone else's ideas and never sit down and asking the hard questions:

Where do I want to go in life?
What do I need to do get it?