When I was young, I was lucky to observe “successful” people and they were always eager to tell me that hard work is the key to success.
However, these influential people in my formative years probably taught me more about how not to do things, than how to do them.
Overwhelmingly, the rich or “successful” people I’ve met throughout my life have been chronically stressed, depressed, and resentful.
Where did it all go right?
I tried to obtain the goals my parents and elders set for me.
But, largely as a result of my failure at following the route my parents’ set out for me, I decided to look for alternatives to it.
What else could I do to save me from this life: work hard, pay mortgage, pay pension, have kids, work harder, get ill, die?
I asked myself why? Why do we have to work so hard?
We strive for goals, but often we forget to ask ourselves what are the benefits of these goals?
We find ourselves obsessed with cutting a path through a jungle and forget to look up to see if we’re going in the right direction.
The same is true on a global scale. We’ve been obsessed with economic growth and competition whilst ignoring the impact upon ourselves and the environment.
Indeed, in the amazing book Sapiens, historian Yuval Noah Harari says that the first agricultural revolution around 10,000 years ago, actually made humans work harder and eat more unhealthily.
This agricultural revolution certainly increased the amount of food for humans to eat. But this caused a population explosion so that the average farmer worked harder than the average hunter gatherer, and got a worse diet to boot.
Thousands of years ago we said to each other, “if we band together and work hard for a short time and store up all this food, we’ll never go hungry again!” How wrong we were!
Luxuries become necessities and spawn obligations
In another great book A New Earth, Eckhart Tolle questions the pursuit of goals or any future dream without concentrating on the present moment experience.
… after two years of intense stress you finally manage to come out with a product or service that sells well and makes money. Success? In reality, you spent two years polluting your body as well as the earth with negative energy, [and] made yourself and those around you miserable …
How many times have you said to yourself, “if I work hard for a short time now, I’ll be happier in the future.” And it didn’t make you any happier.
Why do we burden ourselves with unrewarding, unchallenging, boring work now just because we think it’ll make us rich in the future?
How can we be sure it’ll make us rich? And then, if we become rich, how can we be sure it’ll make us happy?
Working hard hinders creative thought
Hard work, in its traditional sense, robs you of creativity, curiosity, and the ability to embrace change.
You go to work and sit behind the same desk, in the same cubicle, for the same company, five days a week. And there you get told what to do. You tap at your computer, make a few calls, and try make your boss happy.
But what if your boss wants you to work in a way that you don’t want to? You’ve still got to do what your boss says. That’s hard work.
What if your company decides that artificial intelligence or a robot would do your job better than you. That’s hard work putting you out of work.
So, where are you going with this, Rob, what’s the alternative?
I don’t have all the answers. And, of course, I appreciate that we have bills to pay, families to feed, and daily needs to support in order to survive.
I have discovered that giving yourself a break from a hectic life and letting your mind wander can foster great and creative ideas.
Change. The only constant in the universe is change and, especially as you get older, you have to embrace the change.
Embrace the strange
I’m not a neuroscientist but I believe that our brains, just like our bodies, can be trained to improve. And, cognitive improvements can occur at any age.
If you remain within your comfort zone and never do anything to push your body or mind, they will weaken and you will age quicker.
Constantly accepting change and constantly learning new skills will, therefore, stand us in good stead.
Here are some suggestions:
- Read a book on a new subject you don’t usually read about
- Learn a new language (either a spoken language or a programming language)
- Go somewhere new everyday
- Play computer games (of a type you don’t usually play)
- Play board games (of a type you don’t usually play)
- Go to a meet up, conference or a retreat with a load of strangers and force yourself to talk to them (scary for introverts)
- Learn to dance (a proper dance like salsa not just jumping up and down in time to music, which is all I’m able to do)
- Learn to play a new musical instrument
- Meditation. Meditation is the best way to rewire neural pathways and encourage more focussed, creative thinking.
So, it’s not that hard work per se is bad. But, doing the same thing day-in day-out or having the same weekly routines is detrimental to our mental well-being.
If you want to know more about the above and meditation you could read my book Mind Freedom: Re-program Yourself for Success and Happiness with Meditations, Affirmations, Mindset Shifts. It’s about the personal development habits I adopted that all had a positive affect on my life.
If you’d like to read it on Kindle, buy the paperback, or listen to it, please click on one of the below links.
US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00YUY4WYM
UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00YUY4WYM
IN: https://www.amazon.in/dp/B00YUY4WYM
OZ: https://www.amazon.com.au/dp/B00YUY4WYM
CA: https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B00YUY4WYM
What do you do to re-wire the neural pathways in the brain and freshen up your experience? Is there anything else we can do to escape the monotony of our comfort zones and working routines?
I would love to hear from you. Leave a comment down below.
Brilliant, as always. Thanks Rob for the inspiration and reminding us there is an alternative to the rat race.
Thank you, David 🙂
Thanks, Rob for these great posts and the reminders that it isn’t all about “getting ahead” or accomplishing some big hairy goal that amounts to little in the big picture. SA
Hey Scott, great to see you here again. Hope all is well.
Very good Rob doing work that same thing is not good for your health i did this when i was young
taking mold off cheese.. Now i try to be in the flow which is there and you do find Harmony and peace and meditation does help me ….
Great that you’re meditating and trying to go with the flow, Kevin. Sounds awesome! 🙂
Great post! Nice mullet too btw 😉
A timely reminder that I could do with mixing things up a bit!
I don’t work hard. But I do do the same things day in day out, which does make it feel like hard work.
When your life is fixed and there doesn’t seem room to make big changes, is it wrong to focus on the future rather than the now?
In 10 to 12 years I could have fewer responsibilities and can then hopefully travel and do more of the things I want to do. But in order to have that potential for freedom, I should be working hard now.
It is tricky to find the balance between enjoying the moment, but paying for it later.
Or putting in the work now, for the chance of being able to to enjoy the moment later.
I do like the Ekhart Tolle quote, but if you put your head down and “grind” for 10 years (and potentially be miserable while doing it), you could set yourself up for financial security for years to come, allowing you to enjoy those years.
To build your empire Rob, didn’t you have to put in lots of work upfront, building the blog, creating the courses, etc, which might not have all been 100% fun times? But it allowed you to create the life you have now? Was it worth it?
Just my thoughts. Maybe I misunderstood the article!
Yes, Joe, I didn’t even realise I’d had a mullet until someone showed me photographic evidence, shocking!
I don’t really want to tell anyone what’s right or wrong for them. I did work hard for a 2 year period after the break up of my marriage and before I went to Thailand. But I’m pretty sure that before and after that I’ve worked less hard than most people who have 9-5s. I always get my full quota of sleep. And building the blog did make me happy – happy in a kinda nerdy, egoic way. It makes me less happy now but I do less of it. So I did enjoy working really hard during that period, but I wouldn’t have wanted to do it for more than a couple of years.
And I really am talking about a fixed life and work routine that doesn’t allow for space or variety rather than “working hard” (OK, click bait title!) – I’m saying there’s a need to mix things up a little, as you say.
Yes, it’s a balance between present moment and laying down solid financial foundations that will help you later on. But I’m saying most people put too much emphasis on the latter.
It may be different if you have kids, but I’m asking people here (not necessarily you) why sacrifice not being happy now in the hope that you’ll be happier in the future? You can’t be sure about the future and you can’t be sure what will make you happier in the future, so isn’t it better to work out how to be happier now?
Yes, good point about the difference between working hard on something you enjoy (eg working on the blog) vs working hard on something you don’t enjoy.
I remember about 10 years ago, when I first discovered affiliate marketing, and working hard on that, and really enjoying it. So it is possible to enjoy work, at least for a while!
Also, you could, in theory, change your thoughts to enjoy work, or at least ignore the negative thoughts about work. But I feel that when we truly enjoy something, it’s beyond thoughts and the enjoyment comes from somewhere separate from thoughts.
I’ve just re-read your Free Your Thoughts book.
I’ve been meditating for a while now and writing down my goals. But after re-reading the book I will make some changes to how I write my goals and make them more like affirmations.
Did your visualizations that you wrote about in the book come true?
Cheers,
Joe
Hi Joe, I’ve never tried to change my thoughts about something I didn’t like to something I did like. I never thought of that.
Yes, all my affirmations have come true. That’s why you should be so careful what you wish for! 🙂
Thanks for reading the book again, Joe. 🙂
In 2012, I could earn good money with my books on Amazon, but I missed that opportunity. I had books with ugly covers with grammar mistakes and earned 4 thousand. If I invested in cover design and editing, who knows, maybe I made 40, not 4.
But I started as a poor immigrant, and poor person cares more about saving, while a rich person thinks more about earning. I saved money and as a result, did not earn.
Now I have covers designed and books edited, but it is too late. Competition is much higher than in 2012, and my books are not visible enough.
There are articles in this blog, Sergey, about publishing on Amazon. Yes, it’s certainly harder than in 2012. But it’s the same with any online business.
Thank you, Rob. Your advice is always very helpful!
thank you, Sergey
Thank you so much for this. Extremely inspiring. Exactly what I needed??
Thank you, Angie
Thanks Rob. I will look forward to reading your book. Another perspective that often gets overlooked in our current culture is that work should be about the joy we can get from serving others. Whether we work for ourself or a boss, we are always serving. If we look to the Bible and the example of Jesus, He showed us the joy of serving and thinking outside ourself. I think we will always be unhappy with our work if we don’t learn to love the way Jesus and his disciples taught us to. Work is an opportunity to love and that can change everything.
Absolutely Aaron. I should have mentioned how helpful I find helping people. 🙂 I hope you like the book.
Amazing content Rob!
Though I have a different question. Previously I saw your post on online course platforms and I am curious, what is your opinion on Learndash – Lifterlms?
Once upon a time blog comments were supposed to be on-topic, Murat, sadly the rise of social media has made everyone think that they can ask a question about anything at any time and will get an answer, not bothering about context or or the correct indexing of pages on the web. Never mind! Please, Murat, if you have a question that’s irrelevant to a blog post, contact the blogger by the Contact Page, you will get a better answer!
Thanks Rob,
Being called lazy by people running in mindless circles always seemed ironic to me. With a little careful thought we can work it out once and solve some problem for all time. We’re human beings, not human doings.
I’ve resisted the lash of the watch….for 20 years. A great achievement in a punctual world.
I’d like to add an idea to your suggestion to “… learn a language (spoken or computer)…” to keep your brain fresh.
Learning a *sign* language involves motor skills and physical memory with vocab and a physical grammar. It’s also useful when the audio on a video call isn’t working, or you want to ask your partner something across a noisy room.
Wow, learning sign language is a great idea! I never thought of that. Nice one, David, we seem to be on the same wavelength. 🙂
Learning a new language enhances listening skills and memory and improves the knowledge of one’s own language.
It’s true, Nisha, it really is a great mental exercise.
Thanks for this, Rob. A timely reminder that I can take things a bit easier on the alternative path to making a living and focus on the now a bit more.
All the best for 2020 and beyond ??
Ps that was supposed to be a “peace” emoji at the end of my comment but is now showing as two question marks! 😀
Haha, I guess WordPress doesn’t do peace emojis 🙂
Interesting Rob – the more I read of your stuff the more hooked I find myself. I recently quit my job for some of the reasons you talk about (and the stress was becoming detrimental to my health). I’m not afraid of hard work, but at 65 decided I would rather be broke for a year than keep putting my own goals on hold. That was only a week ago and I already have three books (2 published and one in review) on Amazon with the inspiration you have provided. And my mind is already running away with ideas that I never had the energy to consider before! Thank you for your content 🙂
PS My website is not live yet. in case anyone clicks and wonders! Still building
Hey Jayne, awesome! Great that you have made a start with self publishing on Amazon. It’s great fun! 🙂 Really glad you’ve found something helpful here. 🙂
Hey Rob,
Your post is very helpful and informative for all readers and for me also.
A timely reminder that I can take things a bit easier on the alternative path to making a living and focus on the now a bit more.Learning a new language enhances listening skills and memory .
I will look forward to reading your book.
Thank you
Sweety
Hello Sweety, thank you so much for your comment. I’m glad you found the post helpful.