As goal setters, and high achievers, we often can get caught in the working hard philosophy of work. We will try to put in double the time to get double the result. We get confused that working hard will make us successful, but often it is the lazy person who wins, why is that?

Why is it that the one who looks like he or she is taking it easy, while you work so hard? If you have ever worked for a large company, and have had a chance to see the boss in action, you will often see him or her in a stress free attitude. It seems like they are not even putting in any effort.

Now, I am not saying that total laziness will get us anywhere, but sometimes it needs to be put into perspective. And to put it into perspective we need to consider how tasks generally go. For example when we do things for the first time, they seem hard. After repeating that action several times, it gets easier.

Now, it seems like a breeze. We repeat, repeat, and it seems to get easier. But, here is the problem. As Erric Hoffer once said - in times of change the learners will inherit the earth, while the knowers will find themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a world that no longer exists.

And here is what I wanted to write to you about today. It is in that repetition that we can get stuck in a gear, which does not allow us to go up a gear. If we are not constantly learning and applying, then someone just may come along that is working at a higher gear, and end up raining on your parade!

We all have done it. We find a gear, and get comfortable in that. Then learning new things, new ways of doing things gets to the back of our minds. We hit a plateau, and this plateau never has a higher point.

You have goals; you set goals, and are a goal setter. As a goal setter, life is about achievement. We get addicted to ticking off stuff! And that is the fun part of setting goals, and actually achieving them. It is the challenge to succeed.

To succeed, and achieve higher plateaus, requires that we constantly work hard to work smart. If you consider for a moment how books were written a thousand years ago, you will find it was written by hand. Now in today's world of printed materials, and even now with you reading this online, you can see that the smartness works much better than working hard. Work smart, work hard on yourself to find solutions that can make your life appear to others as easy. That is the smart way, and it works.