What it ACTUALLY Means to Work Hard

I know this might offend you, but you're not actually working hard. Even if you're putting in 14 hours a day, seven days a week like I was when I was building my first company, that's not hard work, that's just work. Now you might be asking yourself a question, what's hard work? It's not doing the thing you already know how to do. And it's the kind of hard work that's allowed me to go from broke 17 year old to a multi millionaire today. So I'm going to share with you what it actually means to work hard. Welcome to the Martel Method. I went from rehab at 17 to building a hundred million dollar empire and being a Wall Street Journal best selling author. In this podcast, I'll show you exactly how to build a life and business you don't grow to hate. And make sure you don't miss anything by subscribing to my newsletter@martelmethod.com.

Why am I not working hard?

You're probably not working hard because you're scared that you're going to have to sacrifice the things you enjoy doing, which is watching tv, hanging out with friends, playing video games, scrolling on social media, lazing around. Those things will have to go. People ask me all the time, it's like, what have you done to be successful? It's actually what I don't do. I don't sit around and do nothing. I don't smoke vapes, I don't gamble, I don't watch sports, I don't watch the news, I don't do a lot of stuff that created the space for me to actually win. Most people don't wanna work hard because it means actually killing off those things that are distracting them. The way I think about it is make a list of all the things you say I'm not willing to sacrifice. Those are the reasons why you will not win at the level that you want to. If you have big ambitions for your life, don't tell me you have crazy big dreams of being mega wealthy and then act small. Those things do not correlate. That's why people are scared to work hard. Or they might have worked hard in the past and it burnt them out because they didn't have the right psychology to deal with that level of stress. But maybe they were under stress cause they were working on something that they didn't even wanna do. See, when I'm pursuing a goal that I'm after, my mission, my crusade, then it doesn't feel hard, it doesn't Feel like work. It feels like I'm building the building blocks to actually achieve. So don't allow past moments where you felt the pressure to stop you from stepping up again today.

Tell me something about hard workers that 99% of people don't know.

99% of people wouldn't know that. The hardest workers I know just do it when nobody's looking. There's no fame, they're not posting on Instagram, they're not bragging about it, they don't even consider it hard. They just get up and they do. They stay in it longer than most. They do what's unpopular. Most people would say, well, that's beneath me, I'm not willing to do that again. What are you not willing to do? That list, that's the thing that's gonna stop you. Oh, here's a big thing. The people that work the hardest, what people wouldn't know about those people is that they actually love it. They like love it. Like, you know how you love playing video games or you love gambling, or you love watching sports. They love the process of work, of creating, of doing things that puts em outside their comfort zone. And because they've learned to fall in love with it, they'll do it longer, they'll do it better, and they will get there faster than people that don't or people that just fall in love with the outcome they're trying to achieve.

What is hard work then?

I think doing hard work comes down to four things. First off is you have to be willing to work longer than most people are willing to. When everybody else gives up, goes home, stops, you stay, you put in the hours, you get up earlier than most, you start working faster than most, you stay longer than most, you stay in the pocket, you don't get distracted, you put the headphones on, you attack it, you create a game and every day you measure it and you get better at it and you have a feedback loop and you hold yourself accountable to other people. You're just willing to go longer than most. And that's why they say the last mile is rarely crowded, because most people don't go that far. Second thing is you have to work when you don't feel like it. See, I often have meetings get canceled on me because the person didn't feel it. Your feelings does not matter around what you do. Okay, Layla Hermozi has this incredible quote that's going viral right now, which is fuck your mood. Follow the plan. Fuck your mood. Follow the plan. Fuck your mood. Follow the plan. Do the work. Whether I feel like it or not, anything done today will, will have a better impact than waiting till I feel like doing it tomorrow, next week. Especially if it's like a lot of coordination. Most people do all the work and then lose the benefit because they don't feel like it. The day it needs to show up, the day you have to perform, your feelings should not get in the way of your actions. It doesn't mean it'll be fun. But again, the whole point of doing hard work is doing things you don't want to do. So when everybody else decides I'm not feeling it, I'm not going to do it, they're not going to get my best work. You give it all you got. You show up, you don't cancel, you honor your commitments and that's, that's a big area. Number three is you do the opposite of what others are doing. See, if you want to live an extraordinary life, a life that very few people in your family may have never experienced, then you can't be doing what everybody does. If everybody else went to university, but you have aspirations to start a tech company and you, you're 21, you might want to go start the tech company because that's a pattern that seems to be replicated. But if you keep doing what everybody's done, you're going to have the exact same life that everybody's got because you are following their plan, which is not the way you win. Think about it. You have to be extraordinary, meaning you have to be extra. Which if everybody is agreeing with your strategy inherently, it's wrong. Unless those people are folks that have done the thing you want to do. But the people around you, like, just get okay with being misunderstood. Be okay with people questioning your decision. You know, I remember when I lost weight, I decided to do a 16 day cleanse and everybody thought that's not healthy and that's not good for you and this and that. And I'm looking at them and they're carrying 40, 50 pounds more than they should and they're trying to give me health advice. I mean, that's not how it works. You have to do the opposite of what everybody else is doing. So when I go for dinner and, and I order my protein add ons at a restaurant and everybody else orders these main beautiful, delicious meals, I'm abnormal. I'm okay with that. Why? Because hard work requires me to do the opposite of what everybody else is doing. That's the definition of it. The last part of hard work is doing what scares you. See, when I hear people say, I'm hustling, I'm hustling, I'm hustling. All I hear is somebody that works a lot that does the same thing. Hustling is actually meant to be. I do things that scare me every day. One of my core philosophies in my manifesto. I've got a bunch of different principles and philosophies, but one of them is scare yourself every day. I wrote that down to remind myself, if not, if I'm not putting myself in a position anymore to be stretched to be outside of my comfort zone, then now I'm just doing repetition. It's not hard anymore. And it's easy for people at the highest level to get into that routine. But underneath the surface, they know subconsciously that they're under indexing. They know they're not working as hard as they could. They know they're not performing at the highest level because they're not doing things that scare them. That puts them to start a new skill. Decide to start from fresh, go into a new line of business, start a new division of your business, whatever it is, get into a new industry. When you do things that inherently give you anxiety, make you anxious, but in that moment you decide to move forward either way, that's how you know you're working hard, not just doing work. Before we get back to the episode, if you want to jumpstart your week with my top stories and tactics, be sure to subscribe to the Martel Method newsletter. It's where you'll elevate your mindset, fitness and business in less than five minutes a week. Find it@martell method.com.

Why am I afraid to push towards hard work?

I think you're afraid to push towards hard work because there's a realization on the other side of that you could actually win. And at that new level of winning, you're scared to fall from that height. Think about it. If you actually showed up and did the work, there's a good chance you're gonna get the result, which means you're gonna win. You're gonna get the money, you're gonna get the accolades, you're gonna get the rewards. But now you've just expanded what other people expect from you and from that place. If you fail, you'll fail harder, you'll fall further than where you'd fall today if you just started. So a lot of people don't work hard as a self preservation mechanism to protect themselves from pain.

How can I overcome the fear of.

Doing that work the best way to overcome the fear of doing the work is realizing that fear is optional. Fear is a byproduct of worry that you're going to lose. But if loss isn't a loss because you've rewrote the meaning to any losses and opportunity to learn, that's what I've done. Then I get excited to expand, to grow what I'm going to learn. I get excited to expand to find out what I'm going to learn at that new level. And even if it doesn't work out, it doesn't take away from my learning. So that's how I rewrite the story. But there's also the belief that I need to become more so I have more to help other people. So, like, hard work on its own feels hard. Hard work towards a goal that's for other people is of service. And what I've learned a long time ago is that if I'm waking up every day to help other people, it's really hard to feel like it's hard because I'm becoming more, to give more, and I make it about other people. I mean, just think about, you know, most people will do 10 times more for somebody else than they'll ever do for themselves. And it's because of psychology. You think about your dog. Most people will do way more for their dog than they'll do for themselves. They could be sitting there with a mole growing on their arm and not even want to go see the doctor. The dog has too much scratching and they're immediate to the vet. So it's interesting if you actually use that part of your psychology to make commitments to people outside of your life that you're going to help with the new success you're trying to go achieve. When you make those commitments to those other people, then you'll be more consistent. You'll show up, you'll put your feelings aside, you'll do the work, you'll push through the adversity when everybody would give you reason to stop. When I was doing my first Ironman, it was tough. It was easily, at that point, the hardest thing I'd ever done in my life. Physically, mentally, I was broken. And on that run, I had to dig into a big bag of wise. And these are people that I love that were no longer with me, Realizing in that moment, even as much pain as I was in, as much as I wanted to quit, as much as it was hard that any one of those people and their family members would trade spots with me for another 10 minutes to be able to hold their loved one that why that purpose. Capital P. Purpose. Pushed me to finish. Pushed me to stop walking. Pushed me all the way till the very end because I made it about other people. Before we get back to this episode, if you prefer to watch your content, then go find me on YouTube. I have this episode on YouTube. I'm Dan Martell on YouTube. Just subscribe to the channel, turn on the notification bell because then you'll get notified in real time. It'll tell YouTube to tell you got a new episode so you'll never miss anything. Now let's get back to the episode.

I'm trying to work hard on myself, but I don't know where to start.

It's likely you're confused on what you need to do to work hard, but I always start back from the market. What does the market find valuable? So helping other people make more money, they find that really valuable. Helping other people get in the best shape of their life, they find that really valuable. Helping other people become better, find that really valuable. Now you have to do the work first. So if you don't feel like you're good with your money, you're not good at selling, you're not good at marketing, like, go work on those skills, become more valuable to the market, to the world. So start with a skill and decide to be best in class. Not best good, not okay. But actually going deep and saying, in the grand scheme of things, I want to be one of the top people in the world. And you might be part of a thousand other people, but if there's a hundred thousand people in that market, then you're going to be the 1% striving for that, making that decision. That's how you prioritize what you need to go work on. That will be hard, that will make you more valuable. And then from there, the world will will show you where you're not free. Wherever you have emotional issues, wherever you have emotional frustration with the world, it could be in the relationship side, in the team member side, with your family members, with your community, could be investors, it could be wherever it is. If you have emotional response to interacting with other people, that is the world showing you uniquely where you're stuck. And that's hard work. That is the work. All caps. That is where you have to decide, am I willing to put my ego aside to go humble myself to become better so I can remove this from my life? Because I'll tell you what will happen if you actually are lucky enough to be successful. That behavior, that emotional shrapnel that's Present when you run into those situation will be the downfall of you keeping that success. I've seen too many people get wildly wealthy only to lose it all because they didn't do the work. By sabotaging their decisions, by showing up, drinking too much and getting in the car, by having a mistress, by fooling around on their wife, by, you know, screaming or overreacting in a meeting and causing key people to quit on them. Having investors they've chosen to work with where they knew inside that they shouldn't take their money, they took it anyways because they didn't have the self worth and determination and that person takes their company from. I've seen every permutation because they didn't do the work.

You're already rich. Why? Why do you keep working hard?

I may be rich, but I've got so much more to give. And hard work is what's required for me to give more. And that's just the equation. If I want to help more people, to have a bigger impact, to have more people consume my content, read my books, be impacted by my story, it requires me to be more. It's just the way it is. If I was already the person I needed to be, to be the person who had that impact, then I would have that impact. But I don't and I'm not. And I just think it's a beautiful place to get to when you realize that life, if you distill it down into its essence, is one part becoming the best version of yourself, your 10.0 self. The person that I believe that God created you in his image like that person in that if think all the best moments you've ever had in your life where you showed up powerfully and funny and. And full of joy and empathetic and all the best characteristics of who you are. You had a full day, 16 hour day of just being that 10.0 version of yourself. That's what we strive for. I'll probably never achieve it, but as I'm on that pursuit of becoming that person, then I teach and share everything that I've learned that's helped me with other people to help them, I. I give it away. I become the best version of myself and I give myself to the world so that other people can be benefited from my experience. I actually think that is a life of fulfillment. A lot of people talk about happiness. Happiness is a fleeting moment. What feels even better is knowing that your life is fulfilled, that you are on that journey. So I mean, that's why even though I Have money. I'm still wanting to be better. I want to wake up in a year and go like, oh, I've made some real progress. That's kind of cool. Life is progress. Progress equals happiness. People that are depressed, they're depressed because they don't feel like they're making forward movement. People that are sad don't feel like they have any control over their life. I want to live in a place where I'm always pushing and creating and working hard, putting myself in positions that are scary to try to figure out what are my edges, what's my next thing, what is the world gonna show me to tell me where I'm not free for me to then chart a course to go do that work. Before we get back to the episode, if you actually want to know what my real life looks like and see the people and the businesses and the companies I buy and my family and just like, how I make it all work, go follow me on Instagram. Dan Martel 2 El Martel on Instagram. It's where I show the behind the scenes, the real deal, real time. I'd love to see you there. Have an amazing day.

What do you hope to leave the world with?

In many ways, I think we're all here to leave the world. A story that inspires our family, our friends, our community, hopefully the world. Based on an example of the things you went through. I think most people's purpose in life, actually, they know what it is. They're just not willing to admit to it because it probably sits right next to the worst thing that's ever happened to them. The biggest pain they've ever experienced. Sitting right next to it is their purpose for why they're here on Earth. Their mess that they've experienced in life, the thing they're probably most ashamed for can become their message. And the thing that'll have impact not only on their children or their family, but. But other people in their community. And if social media, the world is their story, their example. So in many ways, I just keep doing what I do so that it makes it a better story. And nobody's watching a movie unless there's conflict and there's setbacks and there's challenges and there's tension. So when I experience the hard work, I go, good. We're the opponent. Fun. Let's do this. What do I get to learn this time? And I just keep moving forward. And guess what? No matter what happens, as long as my brain still works and I've still got my integrity, which I will, I have the relationships that I've cultivated and I have the know how so. Which is crazy, because if people understood that that is something they can't take away, they'd probably run really fast to become that person. Think of it. A bird doesn't land on a branch because it trusts the branch won't break. It lands on the branch because it trusts that it can fly. I always think about that is like, I just want to get better at flying so that no matter what happens, I'm always able to come back because that's been my journey. And I guarantee if you've watched this, you've overcome adversity and just know that you're able to do that. Maybe not all the time, but in the times you don't. That's where the lesson is. That will actually teach you how to be better.

What's the hardest part about taking that first step?

The hardest part about taking the first step to do the work is to understand that our trauma, the things we went through, the hardest moments, they're in a book. And you're given this book through your memories, you know where those memories live. Most people get the book, they close the book and they put on the shelf never to be read. The people that are willing to expand their consciousness and who they are, their spirituality, their zest for life, are willing to open the book and study it and do the work. All caps the work. And this book becomes a reference guide. And what happens is when you speak it out loud, you remove some of the venom. See, right now, it might be really painful for you to visit those stories, but trust me, when we bring them to light, the sunlight will sanitize it, will remove the pain, will make it easier for you to feel. And then what happens is those moments that emotional shrapnel doesn't show up in your life anymore. Things that used to piss you off, make you angry, get you emotional, just dissipate. And that person is able to deal with a lot more. In many ways, you want to wish for bigger problems, because those bigger problems are going to let you know if you actually did the work or if you didn't and where you got to go. Keep pursuing that expansion because to me, that is what it is. It's. I'm addicted to. To the expansion of my capabilities. I'm addicted to figuring out who did God create me in his image, like, what is possible. I don't want to move on from this earth and then meet the person I could have been, and the person's a complete stranger that I think is actually hell on earth? I think that would be hell realizing that the person you met is a hundred times more capable, rich, looks incredible, and you had all the ingredients to be that person and the only reason you weren't is because you decided to stop, not do the hard work, take the easy route. Thanks for listening to Martell Method. If you like this episode, could you do me a huge favor and go leave a review? This helps us get the podcast more ears and helps more people get unstuck, reclaim their freedom and build their emp.