Creating Success from the Inside Out: Develop The Focus and Strategy To Uncover the Life You Want

I.5. You Can Work Harder, or You Can Work Smarterf

I believe the hardest work is work you have to do for someone else. There's just something mentally grinding about it. While we should all be grateful for the opportunity to earn money and support our family, it's hard to get into the mindset that we're doing it for ourselves, when in reality we're doing the work for someone else and their approval. Working smart really means thinking about the path we're on and deciding if it's the path that really suits us—not necessarily the easiest path, and not necessarily the most comfortable, but the one that gets us to our goal the fastest. As you think about this, picture two roads through life. I call them "Option One" and "Option Two."

Option One: Work 40 to 50 Years for Somebody Else

Do as little as possible to keep the boss happy, after all, the one who pays you is buying your time. You're not giving it away, you're selling it: the one buying your time is buying the hours of your life. That's why it's called being a wage-slave. You've sold out to the highest bidder ... maybe not even the highest. Along the way, you trade one owner for another. Sometimes they leave you hanging, struggling to find another owner to sell your life to. Hours for dollars. That's all you know. Literally shortening your life, by selling off the hours and the days, the months and the years.

Take a couple weeks each year for a vacation. Show up every day at 8, go home around 6. Paint your house on weekends ...