Forget the Work Ethic, Develop a Think Ethic

Who is the hardest working person you know? Who's the most successful? Are they the same person? For most of us, the answer is going to be no.

We're taught to have a 'work ethic.' In other words, that you have a 'moral duty' to work hard. We're taught to give our best effort, to be reliable, conscientious, and diligent in our work. All good qualities, but no guarantee of success. At least, not for us. If hard work was a true measure of success, wouldn't the WORKING class be the most successful?

I'm willing to bet that if you stop and think about it, you'll realise that the hardest working people are rarely the most successful or abundant. In fact, the vast majority of people who are working hard are doing so because they are struggling to get by.

So, let's just put the myth that hard work equals or leads to success to bed right now, and open up to the possibility that hard work is not the answer. If you're working hard and not getting what you want, doubling down on a broken strategy and working harder is just doing more of what doesn't work.

It's time to ditch the 'work ethic.' Working HARD is NOT your moral duty. Still not convinced?

The Law of Momentum Versus the Law of Diminishing Returns

Let's look at this logically. The Law of Momentum says when you first start doing something, you often don't see results, because you have to build up enough energy to get the ball rolling. Then, when things take off, you start to get more results for less effort. This works in your favour for a while, but it's not infinite.

That's because of the Law of Diminishing Returns. Once you reach optimum results, the results you get per unit of effort start to go back down, until eventually you have to put in huge effort to get even minor improvements. And after a little while more, you start to reach burnout, where putting in more effort is actually counter productive and produces less results not more. You're like a boat throttling its engine in an attempt to go faster and instead just making a bigger wake.

So, there's a small window where working harder will produce better results. Most of the time, though, it's not the most productive approach.

Let's be honest. When you start something new and you're not seeing results, how often is that purely down to a lack of hard work and effort? Isn't it more often due to a lack of experience, knowledge, and refined application of that effort? Don't you get better results and build momentum as you learn to work smarter, not harder? It's not about energy alone, but application of energy.

Spoon Theory

Christine Miserandino developed Spoon Theory to explain the effect s of Lupus in 2003. It's often used to explain to healthy people what living with a chronic debilitating disease is like. Imagine you have 5 spoons. You're given 5 spoons each day to use. Everything you do takes a number of spoons. Getting up and dressed might take one spoon, or it might take three. Leaving the house might take two or more. Regardless of how you use your daily allowance, when those spoons are gone, you're not doing anything until the next day when you get your next batch of spoons.

To a healthy person, this might seem a ridiculously small number of spoons per day, and that's the point. It forces you to consider how you would get through the day if you had such limited resources. But even if you are healthy and you have a 50-spoon-per-day allowance, if your answer to everything is to throw more spoons at it, you're going to run out pretty fast.

The point is, you have finite energy. So, whether you have five or fifty spoons per day, better to use them wisely.

The Pareto Principle

The Pareto principle tells us that in almost anything there's an efforts/results curve. Most people are familiar with this as the 80/20 rule that says 80 percent of results come from 20 percent of the effort. While that's a simplistic explanation, it holds up often enough that it gets the message across. If you're working hard, there's a strong chance you can scale down your efforts without much detrimental effect. In fact, if you're working too hard, slowing down might even improve your results.

So if you're feeling overwhelmed, often the most immediate answer, stop trying to do too much, is the most effective. Slow down a few percent at a time, and measure the results. You might be surprised how far back you can scale some things with no negative effects.

The Think Ethic

Once you've got some room to breathe, you can start to evaluate your energy expenditure. And while you could simply redirect all that saved energy into tackling more projects, I invite you to invest that time in developing a think ethic.

Instead of diving into doing more, devote more time to figuring out the right thing to do. Spend time developing your range of thinking skills. Spend time reflecting and meditating, brainstorm creative ideas, practice deductive reasoning and logic, and critical thinking. Practice free association and abstract thinking, but don't overlook concrete thinking either. Practice both linear and holistic thinking.

Think about your goals and objectives. Prioritise them and think about the most effective use of your time, so that when you start trying to do things more efficiently, they're the right things. Understand the opportunity cost involved in every decision. Remember the Spoons.

I'm willing to bet none of this is really new to you. It's all stuff you already know. But maybe you just need a gentle reminder. So today, I want to challenge you to look at how hard you're working and cut that by 20%. Use that 20% for thinking, and nothing else for a full week. Let me know what happens.