I’m here to debunk another common myth in the working world. It’s believed that if you work hard, you will be successful. It’s not necessarily true. First off, what is hard work? Who deems your work as hard work? How much work do you have to do to make sure you’re doing hard work? It’s such a subjective achievement. Hard work isn’t crucial to success because there are so many other factors that go into your success. Here are a few.

Work Smarter, Not Harder

You’ve heard this term as well, but what does it even mean? If you looked at my busyness post, you would know that working hard with no results is a waste of time. We tend to do it anyway. To work smart, instead, you proactively strategize your intentions rather than reactively work. Working smarter simply means not wasting time.

Support is Needed

No one person can do something, especially if that something is significant. Working is all about making connections and fostering an atmosphere of collaboration. Without the help of others, you won’t be able to pull projects forward, no matter how hard you work.

Overcoming Fear

Fear is an invisible barrier that stops us from getting to the success we deserve. The thing we do instead of managing the fear is to hide from it. We rather not take the risk because we are afraid of the result. The way to overcome fear is to confront it and manage it. Things are only uncomfortable…the first couple of times.

Vision is Needed

Having a vision matters. If you need people to help you, know that they don’t follow you as a person. They follow your ideas. No one is going to know how to help you, if you don’t know how to help yourself.

Happiness > Success

Without happiness, your success doesn’t really mean anything. It’ll also be very difficult to achieve anything when you’re not excited about what you’re doing. Working hard isn’t synonymous with joyous work. There’s a negative connotation when it comes to the general sentiment around hard work. If you disagree with that statement and you say enjoy your hard work, ask yourself, if it’s really hard work.

Consistency is Key

You can work your hardest on any given project, but if you only do it once, it’s probably not going to yield results. More likely you’re going to use up your energy on that first project. For the next one, you’re expected to keep the same energy. This is how burnout occurs. Instead of putting all of your energy into one task, be consistent with your work so that it’s always good and you can enjoy the success of your entire body of work.

Haters Gonna Hate

If you want to succeed, you must also know that you were meant to do more. Much like fear, people who create an energy of cynicism to your ideas deter people from greatness. If you want to achieve your higher purpose, you can’t allow people’s negativity get you down. Their belief systems can’t block your goals.

Failure is a Part of Success

This is a constant theme for me. In order to succeed, you have to make mistakes. This is the only way you learn. You can be committed 100% to success, but that doesn’t mean that there won’t be setbacks and challenges. These failures have nothing to do with your ability to achieve. You can see it optimistically. The more times you fail, the closer you are to the definition of success. You just have to stay the course.

Simply working hard isn’t the way to garner success. There are many more factors than this that contribute to your success. None of them should be overlooked in the effort to simply “work hard.”