Many people believe that you should only focus on working hard to get where you want in life, which in many ways are true, but it is not the whole truth. If you do not focus towards a target and have a plan for reaching it you can work yourself to death and still be poor.
Put yourself in the situation of a lonely mother of three children, she works full time and must take extra small jobs to support the family. Even getting enough sleep is a challenge, not only is there work but there are also kids take care of, give attention and raise. Is her key to success to work even harder? Sleep less to earn some extra money in something that probably is low pay work? No, not only is this impossible, but it would be suicide. Give this person the tools she need, how to work smarter, the knowledge of how to use her money and time to gain knowledge and leverage in life.
If you have a job and wish for a better career, a higher payroll you will have to know how you can be of value for the company you work for. The more you know about how that company earns money, what they are looking for, how you can contribute, the easier it is for you to become a valuable resource. Look at your day and how you can optimize and get more out of it. Long drive to work? Do you work in the transport business, are you in the cleaning business, do you work in a storage? You probably consume a good number of hours with music or radio. What about getting audiobooks or podcasts about economy, self-improvement, finance, investing? What if you replace all those hours of radio each week with improving yourself?
A lot of these are also freely available for download, they can be put on your mobile device and they can be repeated how many times you want just like the songs you probably have heard hundreds of times before. Think about using all the time you usually use on nothing to improve yourself, both at home and at work. You do not have less time to use on work or in your spare time you have only made a small change in your daily routines, this is an example of working smart.
Work smart, create good routines, plan by searching for inspiration and learn from others and then work hard on reaching your goal. You might be put off by the idea and think it will all be boring, but you will find that by doing this your mindset will change and you will find enjoyment in learning. If you dream about a better existence and your focus is only on moving the broom back and forth every day you can work as hard as you want, you will not get anywhere.
This article is part of a series I am currently writing, I will post 42 inspirational articles everyone can relate to. Following all steemians interested in the project:
Blog: Above average - The 42 Millionaire Shortcuts