Counterpoint: Working Hard is the Easy Part
There is a school of thought that says success is all about blood, sweat, and tears. While it’s true nothing worth having comes easy, it’s also true that doing the hard work to become successful is much easier than figuring out what work you need to do.
In other words, hard work is just an entrance fee. Being a hard worker is the bare minimum. Moreover, if you work hard at the wrong things, you will go nowhere fast. Indeed, the hard part is knowing the right thing to do and knowing how to do that thing right.
It’s at this point when you know the right thing to do and know how to do it right where you can then focus on putting your head down and working your hardest. Furthermore, to get to this point you must invest in developing the mental skills you need to have a strategy.
Developing a Strategy is the Hard Part
The physical part of hard work amounts to tactics. That is, the work you do each day to get better at any one thing or complete any one task. This tactical work must be done, however when it’s done without being put into a larger strategy it makes the work less effective.
Accordingly, developing a strategy requires a big picture mindset so you can choose the what, when, and how of your tactics to create synergy. Synergy is the idea that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. In other words, when you put two or more tactics together strategically, the product of your work will produce more progress than when you work on each tactic in a vacuum.
This is no trivial concept and it’s not something you can copy from someone else. You must know your strengths and you must know how to exploit your strengths to your advantage to create an effective strategy. Then, you can direct your hard work in a meaningful way and start working harder and smarter simultaneously.