Working smarter not harder is a resolution most high performers and high achievers make in January.

Especially those of us who are workaholics. Those of us by the time December comes are feeling very burnt out. 

Burnout is a common problem for High Performers and High Achievers.

So how can you work smarter rather than harder?

One way is to SLOW DOWN. 

Another way is to SIMPLIFY

The third way is to prioritise SELF CARE.

As you have slowed down by December, it is natural to continue to do so.

We live such fast paced lives, slowing down really helps.

It means we are not working harder as slowing down gives us the energy to spend time thinking how we can achieve what we need to with minimum effort.

Slowing down in some areas of our lives also enables us to speed up in other areas of our lives.

This may seem absurd but this is based on scientific fact. For instance, mouth hygiene is related to heart hygiene.

The cleaner the mouth the cleaner the heart.

So slowing down your brushing of your teeth will help your heart rate. 

Slowing your breathing will help pump the blood faster. 

When we study the pace of our lives in every single aspect and area….this is called PACEOLOGY. It is something I discovered when working with high performers and high achievers like you. This is the detailed study of pace over a specific area of time. 

Pace was also something I studied in my own life and found when I slowed down in certain areas and speeded up in other areas, there was a rapid and lasting transformation in my gum health, bone health, mental health, gut health and emotional health and spiritual health. PACEOLOGY is a work in progress for me and I plan to team up with doctors and researchers and really share the benefits for the general population. There are definitely benefits for high performers and high achievers who have worked with me. They have experienced rapid and lasting transformations when slowing down in one area of their life which was fast paced and speeding up in another area which was slow paced. I found that high performers and high achievers attained these rapid and lasting transformations because they were willing to work smarter not harder.

High performers and High achievers tend to be workaholics but those in recovery or recovered are the ones willing to adopt a strategy or try any strategy that helps you work smarter not harder.

Us Workaholics are used to working hard. Perhaps that is why we are willing to try and experiment with strategies that help us work smarter not harder.

Working hard is our go to strategy to cope with challenges. 

It is what keeps us going even when most would give up.

But working harder does not always lead to being productive does it?

We find that we started the year with all these goals but by the end of the year we are frustrated with ourselves that we only  achieved a few by the end of the year.

This is usually the case because we had so many goals and usually we didn’t notice the few that have been achieved.

I find that one way to work smarter not harder is to be specific on what goal you want to achieve and why.

The why is important as it keeps you going.

The why needs to give you goosebumps.

And it needs to be specific as to when you want it achieved by and relevant to who you are, what you are and your lifestyle and your current reality. 

For instance one of my goals is to write a screenplay but I know I will not achieve that by the end of the year. So I have a specific goal of reading at least one screen play by the end of December 2024. In 2025 I will start writing a screen play. I therefore have a specific goal.

I also know this specific goal is smart as it fits my busy lifestyle. I work as social worker 4 days of the week and I have a family and run a side business.

I know I don’t have time to write a screenplay this year but I am measuring what I can do by the end of the year and making it achievable. It is despite my busy work life balance achievable to read a screenplay by 31st December 2024. And I have this goal time bound. 

Now many of you are familiar with SMART planning.

You are visionary entrepreneurs you do it all the time in your business or for your team but have you done it for yourself for that DREAM you buried along time ago and keep procrastinating about.

I know most of the time you thought R stands for REALISTIC but it actually doesn’t not how I understand S.M.A.R.T planning in my world the R stands for relevant.

However I know you are probably very generous and see your friend or your family member being more relevant. You see your employees being more relevant or you see your customers being more relevant than your DREAM, I want To remind you your dream is RELEVANT to you. 

No matter how impossible it seems to you.

And if it is relevant to you.

It is relevant to me.

Even if we never meet.

I want you to know that me just being this human witness gives me hope that you can breathe some life into this dream you buried.

I am rooting for you to resurrect it.

And putting aside the dreams and aspirations of your loved ones, employees or customers, I want you to promise yourself that you will do whatever you need to to make it reality.

And maybe in a week or so you can give yourself some time and space in your busy life and work towards that dream by breaking it up to a set of goals and breaking those goals into a series of steps.

Guess what doing just that, that is what leads to a fulfilled life.

That is what I do with high achievers that hire me support you to see your DREAM.

How do I do this?

By MULLING 

MEDITATION and MIRROR WORK.

We do this in what I refer to as the personal alchemy journey.

Sometimes our dreams are so buried, we cannot see them.

We have denied them air…. MULLING with another to remind ourselves of our dreams really helps.

We have been so busy building a life where we are successful we have forgotten how to BE.

So sitting with our feelings and thoughts in silence in other words meditation really enables this presence of mind.

Us High Performers find it hard sitting in silence for a few seconds let alone a minute but doing this everyday for a week really gives us the opportunity to be present.

You can increase the minute sitting in silence to another minute the following week and then another until after 15 Weeks, you are sitting in silence for 15 minutes.

Try this.

Do this exercises sit in silence for a minute every day for a week.

Increase the minute every week.

Then if this helps you realise your dream please tell me. Contact me using the form on this website.

I really want to know.

I am called The Muslim Alchemist online and I know the dreams we realise are our GOLD that lie in the shit of our lives that seem really ordinary and mediocre.

When we breathe life into these dreams then we find our lives light up.

This is what I call emotional and spiritual GOLD.

Alchemy is turning the base metals or in other words the shit and suffering and adversity in your life into GOLD.

I sincerely hopes this article gives you the motivation to realise your dreams and work smarter not harder in achieving them.

I pray that 2024 is the year you achieve at least one of them.