Working smart, not hard is key to success

work smart

Recruitment entrepreneur advises on why implementing rules and ideas with passion are the key to success.

The jobs market has always been a challenging place, but with current influences from the threat of artificial intelligence taking over some jobs to an increase in self-employment, it’s never been more important for individuals to understand how to be their most efficient self and ‘work smart’.

People who have achieved their goals in life have incredible work discipline, implementing rules and ideas with passion to perform and succeed. But this involves taking a step back and understanding a number of factors – from what motivates to you, to what you want to achieve in the short and long-term. This is not easy, but will help you on the path to success.

Some top tips for working smart, not hard are:

Drop the excuses

Every day I hear excuses from people as to why they can’t achieve something, from ‘if I had more money’ to ‘if I was younger’. It’s these negative thoughts that are standing in the way of your success. Ask yourself what it is that you want to achieve, write it down and then figure out the practical steps that you need to take in order to get here.

Trust yourself and have confidence in your abilities 

Successful people all have confidence in common – if you can’t trust in your abilities yourself, no one else will trust in you either and I see people around me wasting their potential just because they don’t believe in themselves.  If this doesn’t come naturally, build your confidence through daily practice. Only practice makes perfect and if you repeat something every day, you will see improvements.

You should take time to reflect on what you’ve already achieved on a regular basis, and this will help you work towards your next goals.

Continually set yourself new challenges  

It’s important that we continue to push ourselves out of our comfort zone and achieve new things. This doesn’t have to be something huge and it doesn’t even have to be related to your day to day work. but achieving something you thought impossible, will have a knock-on impact to all aspects of your life.

Create a ‘time saving and money making formula’

Success is all about efficiency so it’s crucial that you find a formula that enables you to work productively. This may take time because everyone works in different ways and what works for me for example may not be right for you. You should therefore try different tactics regularly until you find the working method that’s right for you. That may be creating task lists, it may be going for a walk every morning or it may be implementing your attitude to fitness to your working life. There’s nothing to be lost from trying different methods and you’ll be surprised of the impact this can have.

Beatrice Bartlay, entrepreneur, author and business & life performance coach.