Ever since I was a kid I was told that in order to become successful in life that I would have to work hard. I was told that the only way I would ever achieve my goals is if I worked hard to achieve them. And I was told that a strong work ethic would always provide me with a strong sense of satisfaction and accomplishment.

As I continued to age, this “work hard” message would be reinstalled in me time and time again from my teachers, my employers, and even my own parents. And because I wanted so badly to become successful, achieve all my goals, and walk around with a sense of accomplishment, I applied a sickening work ethic to anything and everything I did. Whether it was paying off my first mortgage by the time I turned 25, building a physique that would make me competitive in a sport that I love, or growing a profitable business that I enjoy working on, I put every single ounce of energy into everything I set out to accomplish.

There was one problem though. Although my teachers, employers and parents all meant well, they left out a very important part of the equation that was needed to become truly successful in life. And that part was not to just work harder, but more importantly – work smarter.

Wasted Time

Don’t get me wrong, working hard in my earlier years has definitely paid off now that I’m older. However I can’t help but look back and think if I had applied a few other tools to my “work hard” mentality, that I would be in a much better situation both financially and emotionally today. Fortunately over the past few years, I’ve met and networked with the right people who have steered me in the right direction. These people taught me that working hard will only get you so far in life, and that you really do need to start thinking outside the box in order to become successful.

Most people (including myself) are told that if they work hard, go to school and get a degree, that they will get a job that pays well. Once they get that job that pays well they can then save up enough money to put a measly down payment on a giant mortgage that will take them 25-30 years to pay off. These people are then told that if they work even harder, they might be able to get a promotion at their job and make an extra 10-20K each year. Once these people achieve their promotion they begin to work even harder and longer hours then they were before. Their personal lives begin to suffer. Their families complain that they never see them anymore due to their long work hours. Their health and fitness begin to deteriorate due to the high demands and stress that are put on them in order to maintain their new position and sustain their new lifestyle. They can’t quit their jobs that they now hate because they have a family that depends on their income. They blame their Bosses for pushing them too hard. They blame the Government for taxing them too much. And they blame the people that told them this was how you become successful in life.

Schools Out FOREVER

I’ll be honest, academics never interested me. I always knew that there were a handful of people that made great incomes off having a high education. But I also knew that the majority of people who went to Post-Secondary School and got a degree to work for a giant company were either capped at their potential earnings and/or drowning in student loans. Going to school for an extra 4-8 years in order to make 120k annually did not excite me. Working Monday to Friday so that I could have my weekends off did not motivate me. And being “given” 2-3 weeks of vacation each year did not inspire me. I always knew there were other ways to make money as long as I was willing to listen, learn, apply myself, and pounce on opportunities as they arose.

Still Learning….But NOT From a Textbook

Listen, I’m nowhere close to where I want to be in life right now. I still have financial goals, relationship goals and personal goals that I want to accomplish. And I want to be clear that I am not putting down anyone who chooses to get a degree and/or work a 9-5 job. We all have different visions as to how we want to live our lives. And even though I personally have no aspirations to live what we as a society deem as a “normal life”, I don’t respect anyone less that chooses to take this path.

Success after all means different things to different people. I can tell you that from working with hundreds of clients over the years, all with different personalities and all with different goals, I have learned a few things about people. And one of those things is that we truly are the average of the five people that we spend the most time with.

So if there is one thing that I’ve learned over the years, it’s that I owe a great deal of my own success that I have achieved so far in life to my very own clients. For these are the people that I actually do get to spend the most time with. These are the people that teach me just as much as I teach them. And fortunately for me, I spend a great deal of time with much more than just five of them on a weekly basis.

“Working hard doesn’t mean working less. It means working hard on what truly matters.”
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Yours in Good Health,

Nick Cosgrove
Forever Fit Performance