Hard work is the hallmark quality of Successful people, or is it? Hard work is definitely essential to any life full of success and independence and is certainly a habit of successful people, but hard work does not mean grunt work.

You’ve probably heard this already, it’s not a new concept, but it is one that almost nobody seems to understand, even after the fact. Hard Work is only part of the equation of personal success.

Here, we will discuss some crucial information that you will need to take your blueprint for a successful life to the next level. Here is the actual formula for success, and why you probably shouldn’t be working so hard.

Conscientiousness

When a person is conscientious, they are the opposite of easy-going and careless. This doesn’t mean to be successful means to be stressed, but if stressed is another word for concerned, then being successful means being concerned about the right things.

People who are conscientiousness are organized and dependable. When they read about something and decide it’s a good idea, they can motivate themselves to do it with discipline. They set their sights on goals and achievement for short-term success as well as long-term growth.

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They are planners because plans allow for optimal behavior and more success. These people are not after spontaneity and thrill as their ultimate motivators.

You might mistake a person with high conscientiousness as being obsessive, high strung or stubborn. The opposite adjectives of conscientious are spontaneous (in a nothing matters kind of way), wishy-washy, flexible (having no standards) sloppy, late, careless, dead-beat.

Within this broad term are specific building block characteristics that help us understand what it means for a human desirous of personal success. They are:

Prudence

Prudence is the capacity to make good decisions. These people are rarely put in a hard spot based on their previous decision making. Being prudent involves understanding the past present and future and connecting your present behavior relative to its effect on all three.

This means understanding where you are now, and what the environment is like and using your memory, intelligence, reasoning, foresight, knowledge of all the variables, and risk management skills to make a decision that may need to be quick-witted in some circumstances.

Diligence

Diligence means to grind. It means grit. It means hard work. If you would say you are about your personal success for the long haul, that means diligence. There are setbacks, failures (experiments), criticism and certainly a lack of support, pushing through despite these adversaries is called diligence.

For our information, this is probably the attribute more associated with hard work than any of them.

So we all understand, hard work is important, but you will not get where you want to be in life on hard work alone. Especially not, if you exclude the rest of the formula!

Perfectionism

Perfectionism means you have high-performance standards. It does not mean you are a perfectionist. Perfectionism in psychology is almost an adjective to describe a perfectionism.

However, when we are talking about conscientiousness being a part of the big five, it’s useless to see perfectionism and nitpicking until every detail is flawless, especially details that do not need to be. If this were true, what would be the value of imperfect implementation and how would we harmonize these term terms?

Perfectionism means you do a rough draft, then proofread, and take into consideration details that need to be world class and make them so. It does not mean you waste time an do nothing before anything is launched. It doesn’t mean you take something that would be effective and reign it back in because it wasn’t polished enough.

The ugly side of perfectionism is that these people never get anything done because it has to be perfect and their standard is so high. Perfection, for a perfectionist, makes something valuable, but nothing is valuable if it’s not implemented and used by others.

Double and triple check your work, prepare, have a system and get it done.

Organization

Organization does not only mean to have filing cabinets. It has to do with how things are related and having an efficient way of approaching life.

If you are organized you have a to-do list of only the essentials. You base your progress on productivity, not on raw accomplishment.

Organized people understand what tasks they can perform to get the most bang for their buck and only fill their day with those.

When you are organized, you know exactly what is happening, when it’s going to happen and its effects on you and your surroundings. This also means you understand what activities to perform when.

It means you do not waste time looking for things wasting time.

It means you pay just enough attention to your maintenance, work, and play and all the corners are razor sharp.

Industriousness

An industrious person never stops. They work energetically and they understand the tools by which they can accomplish their tasks more efficiently. Industriousness is not just what they do, but a philosophy. Industrious people WANT to keep going, they enjoy it. They love progress and it’s one of the most satisfying feelings, is to get things done.

For this reason, an industrious person is going to be savvy with tools that allow them to accomplish more in less time, or the same amount of time but more effectively. Industrious people understand that to keep going they need to keep with what going is. They see themselves in a river of progress and make sure they are always with the new thing in case it might help them create more.

You might notice an industrious person with gadgets and new technology that allows them to reach more people, or receive more information. You will see them fluid with the times and the environment they live in so they can be more effective in their approach.

Above all, industrious means you have energy. These people have stamina. Everything must be forward, and they embrace everything that means.

Summary

If you want any form of personal success in life you must approach everything with attention and do what you must thoroughly.

1. Be organized! Study carefully, understand what you are doing and who you are doing it for. Form a plan, and then a backup plan in case your initial effort falls through. Don’t waste time with clutter surroundings, ideas, activities and get the most important things done. Don’t be afraid to leave whats not important on the back burner.
2. Approach everything with prudence! Know the intricate ways that all things connect. Understand your activities related to past present and future, and use your wisdom to make decisions that are good for all three. What you do now will affect you in the future, and what is happening to you know is a result of how prudent you were in the past. Understand the best decision to make for yourself and your personal success each moment.
3. Explode with industriousness! Success never comes from going through the motions, it comes from passion, energy and being in everyone’s face. You might not be that kind of person though, so whatever you do, make sure you put your game face behind it or you won’t get the most from it, and nobody will care. Double your efforts, and be happy with the work that’s required to accomplish things. Industriousness is about being happy with the journey and giving your all during the less exciting times.
4. Be diligent! Think of a bull. Now, put one hoof in the dirt, then another, and another…You’re only taking a small step, but its hard to move a bull, and those small steps eventually leave you across the finish line.
5. Perfectionism means to take everything you have done and make sure what needs to be perfect is perfect. This also means that what needs to be good is only good, and not perfect, because that’s a waste of time. What doesn’t need to be good or perfect should only be functional, and if neither of these then leave it out completely. Perfectionism means double check things so you don’t look stupid. It also means making sure you actually get it out there!