How to Develop a Great Work Ethic

Start your day powerfully

You wake up at 6, 7 or maybe 8am. Either way you’ve managed to consistently ensure you’ll be in a sleep-deprived state. Your alarm goes off and you press snooze once, twice… ten times perhaps? The result is that you start your day in a pretty miserable mind frame. In performing this routine -you are quite literally procrastinating consciousness –not very invigorating is it?

A solution to this is to set your alarm close enough that you know you’ll be awoken by it, but far enough away from your bed that you will have to physically get up to turn it off. Chances are, once you’re up on your feet, having left the comforting confines of your bed -that you’ll simply get up and start the day (hopefully in a less despondent state).

Encouraging friends and family

Make sure you are surrounded by people with a similar work ethic and ambition to yours, or a better one. Take advantage of the competitor within you. Being around people with bad work ethics is usually detrimental. They often discourage your immense dedication, or if not, their energy (or lack of) is contagious. It subconsciously sets your standard lower. Even if those around you don’t have your work ethic, ensure they are considerate and understanding of your efforts and sacrifices.

Be self-aware

Be more self-aware of how you feel when you sacrifice, self-discipline and achieve. You never regret dedicating yourself to a task especially when there’s a positive outcome. Whereas when you aren’t committed to a task and don’t see results, you always look back with regret and shame that you didn’t give it a real shot. When you aren’t working -notice how you feel an underling, yet overwhelming sense of guilt in everything you do. It also makes it almost impossible to completely relish in the things you enjoy -like the weekend approaching, your favourite meal or a night out. You feel unfulfilled and emotionally exhausted. When you are on top of the tasks at hand, everything feels like a reward for your hard work and dedication, it ignites your motivation and you feel really good.

Work hard

Accept that you will have to dedicate a lot of time, and at times sacrifice your leisure time in order to achieve. Your dreams wont manifest from doing the bare minimum or merely cruising along. Instead you have to push yourself and feel a level of discomfort -this is an indication of emotional and/or intellectual growth.

Work smart

However, working hard isn’t always the solution, and if you push yourself too hard then your efforts could be counter-productive. Consistent late nights accompanied by early mornings, abandoning all downtime and constantly leaving your loved ones as a last priority will leave you more drained than ever. Sure, a few late nights, hazy mornings and a subsequent caffeine addiction is most likely going to happen sporadically at some points. However, if this is your daily ritual -there’s no doubt you will burn out, because it simply isn’t sustainable. If you manage your time effectively, you should be able to still acquire a heathy balance. For example, if you normally take 30 minute showers -instead set a timer and cut it down to 10. If it normally takes you 30 minutes to prepare your dinner every night -instead double your servings so its pre-prepared for the night ahead. If you take public transport, then take your laptop and implement 20 minutes of work into your routine during your commute. If you were to hypothetically prescribe to the three examples just listed, you would obtain about another hour and half to spare that day.