If you want to work hard, don’t do this.

We all have a desire to work harder.

Whether that’s so that you can get more done in less time and in turn, have more free time or so that you can work even more and make even more progress.

But working hard comes with one major problem - it’s demanding.

You’re pushing your cognitive limits, focusing on challenging tasks for an extended period of time - hence it uses a tonne of energy and mental bandwidth.

Of course that in itself isn’t a problem, but there is a major problem that’s downstream of this that so many of my clients come to me with.

As ambitious entrepreneurs, they want to optimise their mental performance and productivity. They always want to work harder, sometimes they want to work longer, sometimes they want to do more and they always want to do better.

Of course, doing more, doing better, working harder requires energy and so in the pursuit of more and better, they end up perpetually increasing their energy demand.

But at the same time, doing more, doing better, working harder typically requires more time out of your day and so in the name of doing more, you sacrifice the exact behavioural habits that would allow you to meet your new higher energy demand.

Think of it this way…

If you want to do more or work harder, your energy demand increases.

Hence, your energy input (what gives you the energy to meet your demand) must also increase to match this new energy demand.

And when it doesn’t, that’s when you burn out. You’re demanding more than you’re giving and so you’re in a perpetual energy deficit, stress rises, overwhelm skyrockets and you fall apart.

Of course, the rate at which you burn out depends on so many factors - the size of the deficit, mindset, your health, genetics.

From this I hope you’ve figured out what I’m getting at;

You’ve been lied to about burnout.

You don’t burn out from working too much or too hard.

You burn out from not managing your mental and physical states to the level required to match your work load.

Theoretically, you could work 20 hours a day, every single day, and never burn out, if you were able to manage your mental and physical states as required - of course, logistically this becomes hard.

But in short, you can work as hard, as efficiently, as effectively and as much as you like, but by all heck, don't sacrifice what gives you the energy to do so.

Now what gives you the energy?

Well, it largely comes down to optimal sleep, optimal nutrition, exercise + movement.

Of course there’s other things as well, but those 3 are the main factors, if you don't have these dialled in your energy inputs are limited MASSIVELY.

Combine them with good prioritisation skills, flow states, clear planning and scheduling, systems thinking and self-regulation - you’ll be unstoppable.

And if you want me to help you implement all of this in your own life so that you can take your business to the next level, ​apply to work with me here.