5 Ways to Work Hard Play Hard

Successful people show up and get the job done even when they don’t feel like it. This is not even about getting rich. This is about building general competence in anything you decide to touch. No one feels like putting in work all the time. The greats figure out how to plow through anyway. They understand that they got put into practice when others would make excuses. The goal is a balance, though; you want to work hard to play hard.

Don’t get this message confused. I am in no way saying you need to take no days off. Rest is essential, but the rest should be planned. It should not be a spur of the moment surrender where you decide that you don’t want to show up. When people depend on you, you need to have integrity and show up and get the work done.

The key thing I want to point out in the article title is the word feel. Feelings will get you in trouble when you are on a mission. Your opinions are always valid; they are not still helpful, and that sucks. If you ever give in to what you feel, you will never get better. How could you? Success always requires doing hard things. If success were easy, everyone would be successful. The fact that its hard is what makes it valuable.

1. Remember Your Why ?

The most important thing you can and should do is remember yours why. One of the big things we encourage the Habit Stacker App is that you put your Mission Statement on your profile. The mission is your overall why, and you need to see it as well as your goals daily. The second you forget why you started, you are as close as you can get to quit.

Then why is the fuel that pushes you through the difficulty? Let's say you don’t feel like studying, but then you remember the promise you made to your mother about how hard you would work? The why gives meaning to work, and it makes sense of the pain you are putting yourself through.

The Simon Sinek Book start with why it is a best seller for a good reason. HE cracked the code on how important it is that you invest in your why. Your purpose why will drive what you do, and that will decide on how you do do it. What most people try and figure out first is the how but when life gets hard your why will sustain you.

2. Think Through The Consequences ?

Anytime we give into our short term desires and feelings; it means that we are not thinking about the long term consequences of our actions. Gaining weight is a long term consequence of many small, poor choices. If you don’t put in the work today? That could start a habit of skipping. If you skip giving your all twice a week for the next ten years, how much will you lose out?

You have to play through the consequences of your actions. Negative habits usually have no near term issues. You can eat a donut today, and you will not gain any weight. Do that same thing every day though, and after a few months, your body will start changing.

Often any sexual activity is the result of strong emotions overriding all forms of logic. When people are having sex, they rarely are thinking about the consequences. No one thinks of the baby they could have, STD they could catch or their spouse that would not be pleased. Sex is often the result of two people thinking about emotion.

3. Work Hard Play Hard - Start Small and Easy ?

Once you decide that you’re not going to cop out and you will put the work in. The important thing is that you start small. For example, if I had a day of track practice that I did not want to be at when I was at Iowa State, I would start small. Going to the track early and laying there was step 1.

Being there gave me time to get my mind right. I would run into teammates, see people training, and see my coach. All these things would help me to get ready for what I did not want to do. When it was time to start, I would jog as slow as possible. You can do this for anything. If you have a lot of reading to do, start by reading something fun that you enjoy so your halfway there.

Starting small and easy helps you to get some momentum. Just like building habits, the best way to build them is to do it slowly. Don’t try and jump in and go to hard. In sports, you warm-up, when it's cold, you warm up longer and slower. Mentally your mind is cold, and it needs to be defrosted and warmed up slowly.

4. Work Hard Play Hard - Plan Rest For Tomorrow Not Today

I learned this from Jocko Willink in Discipline = Freedom. You can rest, but you have to do it tomorrow. Rest is good, but it should be planned so you don't a cop-out. Anyone can get up and say I'm tired I'm resting. That is letting feeling takeover. What takes strength is to know you need a rest and tell I plan to rest tomorrow.

Plan your rest and be strategic, and when you plan to rest, you should be discipline to it as well. It's designed so for your master plan to work better, and you need to stick to it.

5. Question if You’re Working Smart ?

The last thing you can do when you don’t feel like grinding is the question if you are working as smart as possible. Remember there is a guy who digs with a shovel each day. Then there is another who buys machinery that can dig and then hires someone to work that machinery. Whatever you have to do that is dragging you down, can you pay someone else to do it? Does it have to be done by you?

You elevate to a new level when you begin to think this way. The reason is that life is not about working the hardest. You need to work smart, and that involves how you use your capital and different human resources.

"I am working smart" means that you are starting to think better about how you use your time and money. You can always get money back, but you can never get time back. With Habit Stacker, I have a team that works around the globe on this. They cover what I don’t know and make sure we get it all done.

So Work Hard Play Hard 

When you don’t feel like grinding, you need to anyway. Create plans to rest or work smarter another day, but this day is to seek and destroy. Winners win, and losers find a way to lose. You have to decide what side of the equation you want to be on. The five ways above will keep you in the game, but you have to want it. That cant is done for you.