The hard work mantra, I think we all get it. At least we’ve all heard it.
Hustle and grind, seem to be the key theme of today’s social memes. And it’s true, you have to work unreasonably hard to make it, and to achieve the success you want.
The problem with today’s emphasis on hard work, hustle and grind memes is they don’t give us much indication on what we should be grinding on.
Because of that, most of us are hustling on the wrong things.
We’re focusing outward, hustling to move and make the things around us work in our favor.
Sorry wrong focus, we need to be focusing on ourselves — on getting better.
Another way to put it is, the hustle needs to be applied internally. We need to learn how to hack ourselves. Before we try and hack our surroundings, and drive our way to success, we have to become the best at we do. We have to become a 1%er.
You can work at something for years. I mean work your ass off, but if you suck at it, or even if you’re good, just not great, it won’t matter. You’re not going to achieve the holy grail of success you want.
At the core of success is greatness. It doesn’t matter who you pick, every person who’s achieved a semblance of success did it because they were really good at something.
Yes, they work hard. Yes, the put in the hours. Yes, they grinded it out. But in the end, the majority of that time was spent getting better at what they dom at their talent. They were maniacal about becoming the best.
You see, once you’re the best, once you’re a 1%er, then and only then is pure hustle the differentiator.
Stop worrying about the hustle and start worrying about personal improvement.
Hack YOU to success, that’s the golden ticket.
As usual Jim great advise and much appreciated. – Barry.
Very inspiring. Thanks, Jim. You are correct, “working unreasonably hard” does not necessarily mean we are doing the right thing. Most times, we work just for the sake of working and not because our work matters to us. How do we improve ourselves? By finding our calling, understand and do the things that we are meant to do.
-Brooke, Tenfold
Improving what we’re doing and finding our calling are two different things. To improve you have to be committed to deliberate learning and self awareness. You have to be able to take a personal assessment of your strengths and weaknesses in your job and then go improve them, deliberately. Do that, get better and repeat.
Improvement is a commitment, it’s that simple.
Couldn’t have said it any better. It’s building in your strength and improving on your weakness. If you know how to accept your faults and mistakes and use it as a drive to be better, you’ll definitely improve and get better each time. Thanks, Keenan!