Every thing I read or see, tells me I should be working smarter not harder, and whilst I love the sentiment, I’ve got to ask the question?

Do you think Michael Phelps worked hard to get ready for the Olympics?

Do you think Girls aloud worked hard in the 7 years it took them to build up to winning a Brit award?

Do you think Steve Jobs or Tiger Woods work hard, or do you think they slack off most of the time?

Hmmm its kind of obvious really isn’t it? They work damn hard!

But maybe you think that people who’ve made it don’t need to work as hard? Somehow its all just coasting, once you’ve topped that first hill, its all just plain sailing from there on!

Ahem, I have news for you. When you’ve coasted down that first hill, and got safely to the bottom, you’re going to look around and guess what’s going to be in front of you? Yep, another hill, and if you climb that one, and you most probably will, the view from the top – will be of a whole damn mountain range….

It doesn’t get much easier. You just learn some tools along the way so that hopefully you won’t make the same mistakes again. But guess what? You’ll find new ones to make!

So is this supposed to make you feel depressed? No not really – But a good dose of telling it how it really is should make you feel a bit more sane in a crazy world. This is life, you have to work hard to get anything you want, and if you’re good at something, you can bet your bottom dollar you’ll be rubbish at something else to compensate, so you never get a full scorecard.

So, why am I telling you this?

At some point in time, you realise that if you want to move ahead, and I don’t just mean in monetary terms, then you’ll need to work harder, because lets face it, all the stuff that you do that’s easy to do, becomes boring. You want new challenges, because you already know how to do all that stuff. With every new challenge you’ll discover – as I have done, that hard work is just…. …. part of the ground rules.

But the good news, is that you will get faster at doing stuff, you will learn more, your brain will start to look for ways of doing it better, more efficiently, cheaper, or just delegating it to someone that you pay so you don’t have to do it. Through sheer hard work (and mistakes) you’ll find the efficiencies.

Its like learning to drive, first off, its terrifying, your eyes are glued to the road like two peas on sticks, you grip the steering wheel like its going to escape from your clutches and every road has the potential for disaster.

But now I bet you can drive while texting, eating your breakfast and simultaneously avoiding serious collision. You simply got better at it. You got more efficient – it no longer takes all your attention to stay between the white lines. It’s because you’ve put in the hours. You don’t achieve anything great without putting in the hours.

The best drivers in the world, drive a lot, the best artists, paint a lot, the best speakers, speak a lot – You have to hone your skills, and you can’t do that in a week or a month. The whole myth of working smarter not harder, is just that, a story. It’s always been a story – It’s just a case of how badly you want it? How far are you prepared to go? Coupled of course with, what will you do outside of your comfort zone to achieve your goals?

So the title of this should really have read: Working harder, faster & focused !

So while the future’s bright, it’s not orange, its full of more hard work, so best be prepared for it now. Don’t believe all the hype about working just 4 hours a week in your business and making millions – its just not true, all it does Is have you question your sanity and wonder what’s wrong with you?

Once you reach the top of your tree, the dizzy heights of success, you’ll find that “working harder” is the real truth of the situation, so resolve to keep working hard with a happy heart, in the knowledge that the future will be just as hard, and that’s fine with you.