Why Effort is More Important Than Quantity - Reframing “Hard Work”

Paula Shepherd Author

Is every moment of your day filled with “hard work” or do you focus on the effort you’re putting into tasks? Because hard work does not equal success!

As the end of the year approaches, are you feeling like you have run out of time? Or are you taking the time to recharge? Is every moment of your day filled with “hard work” or do you focus on the effort you’re putting into tasks? Because  hard work does not equal success.

In this episode we chat about:

Why you don’t need to fill every minute with “work”.

Why quantity perpetuates limiting stories not success. 

Reframing your personal, restorative tasks as essential for business success

Why there’s power in the pause! 

And so much more!

Timestamps:

(01:14) Are you ending the year feeling like you ran out of time? Or are you taking the time to recharge?

(02:05) Why you don’t need to fill every minute with “work”.

(02:30) Focusing on quality effort over “hard work”. 

(03:30) Why quantity perpetuates limiting stories not success. 

(04:25) Where can you fit the clients you’re calling in if it’s full of work already?

(05:45) What are you doing because you think you have to? And what tasks are you doing because you love doing them?

(06:00) There’s power in the pause!

Transcript:

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

business, recharge, connect, business owners, episode, podcast, work, clients, lives, today, next week's episode, effort, successful careers, grew, hearing, mentor, sit, social media, ambitious, love

SPEAKERS

Paula Shepherd

Paula Shepherd  00:01

Hi, I'm Paula Shepherd, I went to college to get a good job and make a lot of money back then, no one talked about doing what you love. And while I successfully climbed the corporate ladder, I felt like there was something missing. So I left the seemingly comfortable corporate world at 40 years old for the freedom of full time entrepreneurship. Today, I get to help ambitious women go from entrepreneur to confident CEO of their lives and businesses. I created this podcast to share what I've learned with you to make your journey just a little easier, and to connect you with other incredible business owners who took a chance on themselves and who they are becoming. So whether you're just getting started, are all in for just want to hear a friendly voice. Come on in and sit with us. Now, let's dive in. 

Paula Shepherd  01:02

Hey, welcome to another episode of The confidence sessions. It's the end of the year. And I've, I'm hearing two trains of thought. One is I need to get everything done. I didn't finish what I wanted to this year, I feel like a failure. And the other is, I'm just going to sit back and I'm going to relax. And I'm going to recharge. Unfortunately, I'm not hearing enough of the ladder. And the reason that I see is that so many business owners like you who are ambitious, and high achieving are bringing all of the mechanics of your professional former lives into your growing business. And what's happening is you're sabotaging yourself, because every single hour of the day you feel like needs to be filled with work. I wish you could see me air quoting that. 

Paula Shepherd  02:08

There's this mentality that many of us grew up around that time is money and hard work pays off. I'd like to argue that it's not actually hard work. But the quality of your effort, that should be the focus. Because the truth is, when we start to shift what effort looks like in our lives and our businesses, then downtime, recharge, recharging, sitting in silence, taking walks, all of those things become a crucial ingredient to whether or not you grow and sustainably succeed in your business. Or you burn out and you give up. And what I've seen is in business owners that have started and they've had these really successful careers before, they can't figure out why this isn't working. They've been in it for a year or year and a half, two years. 

Paula Shepherd  03:21

And they had some some sales some success. But it was never sustainable. Because underneath of it all was I have to fill every hour of every single day. Well, if every single hour of every single day is filled with you being behind a screen or more online time, more social media time, more attempts to connect more opportunities to create digital tactics and strategy. Then what you actually do is perpetuate this story and to habit that this is actually the way especially when this is how you're receiving new clientele or new customers in your business. And we start to let this spider off into our lives too. Right? We have to do more, we have to be more and then it becomes this giant snowball avalanche we'll say and all you do is recreate the environment that you wanted to leave. Where are you going to put those clients when you fill up every hour of your day doing all of the things that don't allow you to be creative to recharge your own batteries. I've had clients tell me that they've had prior mentors or coaches or consultants tell them that

Paula Shepherd  05:04

if they have a client not show up, or if they have space on their calendar that they should be using that time to constantly connect with people. And I, I agree that connection is really important that anyone who knows me if you've been listening to this podcast for a while, if you've been in my world in my orbit, you know how important it is to me to genuinely connect with people over digital strategies. But you can't connect with people in a high energy way, in the way that feels good to you if it feels forced. So today, I encourage you to make a list of all of the things that you're doing because you think you have to. And then in a separate column, write down a list of things that you want to be doing things that light you up things that you love. And these don't have to look like typing up Google to hawk or a an Excel spreadsheet or email or being on social media. 

Paula Shepherd  06:12

These can look like journaling and meditating and taking walks. So you can open your mind to think this can look like a chat with a colleague or a mentor. All of those things contribute to your success, and they want you to reframe what effort looks like in your business and take the word work out of it completely. I'll be back next week. With a follow up episode. I hope that you'll put in the effort to create some space for yourself. There is 100% power in the pause. I am proof of that. And I will see you on next week's episode. 

Paula Shepherd  07:01

Thank you for listening to this episode of The confidence session. I know there are hundreds of 1000s of podcasts. And I'm so grateful that you chose to spend your time today with me. Head on over to be fearless with paula.com forward slash podcast to check out the show notes from today's episode and grab links to all the amazing goodies mentioned today. Also, if you love this episode, as much as I love making it, make sure you don't miss any future ones by hitting the subscribe button right now. See you next time.

Categories: Mindset, Podcast