5 Tips for Becoming a Top 0.1% Student

Summary

In this insightful video, Justin shares his journey from overworking to mastering efficient learning. He emphasizes the importance of not just studying hard but studying smart, challenging norms, focusing on processes over outcomes, embracing the possibility of being wrong to foster growth, and the necessity of stepping out of one's comfort zone to truly excel. His personal anecdotes and five key tips aim to inspire high-achieving students to rethink their approach to learning and life beyond.

Takeaways

• 🎓 Justin emphasizes the importance of learning effectively rather than just studying hard, suggesting that academic success is about mastering the learning process, not just accumulating knowledge.
• 🤔 He warns against the pressure to perform academically at all costs, highlighting a more balanced approach to life that includes proper rest and a good life outside of studying.
• 🔝 Justin discusses the concept of aiming for the top 0.1% in performance, explaining that to achieve such elite levels, one must adopt strategies that go beyond just studying harder.
• 🕒 He shares his personal experience of studying excessively during university, which led to physical and mental health issues, illustrating the pitfalls of overworking without focusing on efficiency.
• 🧠 Justin stresses the need for self-awareness and experimentation with different learning techniques to find what works best for the individual, rather than mindlessly following common advice.
• 📉 He points out that there are diminishing returns on studying more hours without understanding the type of learning that yields the best results, advocating for quality over quantity in study time.
• 🚫 Justin advises against blindly following common study techniques or norms, suggesting that to stand out, one must do things differently from the majority.
• 🎯 He encourages focusing on the process of learning rather than the outcome, as the process is what can be controlled and improved upon to achieve better results.
• 🤷‍♂️ Justin promotes the idea of assuming one's own fallibility, acknowledging that even with confidence, one might be wrong and should remain open to learning and improving.
• 🛠️ He makes the case for working smarter before working harder, suggesting that efficiency and strategic effort are more valuable than simply increasing the amount of work done.
• 🔧 Justin concludes with the idea that hard work involves stepping out of one's comfort zone and embracing challenges, which is where real growth and learning occur.

Q & A

Who is the speaker in the video, and what is the main topic of his talk?

The speaker is Justin, and he is discussing his experience and insights on achieving academic excellence, particularly focusing on strategies for high-performing students.

What competition did Justin speak at, and what was the audience like?

Justin spoke at the New Zealand physics and mass competition, which is for top high school students who solve challenging physics and math problems.

What was Justin's approach to his talk compared to other speakers?

Justin's approach was to provide as much value as possible in his 15-minute slot, focusing on learning efficiency and not being affiliated with a university like the other speakers who were lecturers and professors.

What is Justin's perspective on the importance of academic success versus other life aspects?

Justin emphasizes that while academic success is important, it should not be the sole focus of one's life. He encourages a balanced approach that includes proper sleep, a good life, and effective learning.

How did Justin's study habits change from high school to university?

In high school, Justin managed with moderate studying, but in university, he initially compensated for the high pace by studying 15 to 20 hours a day, which he later recognized as unhealthy and inefficient.

What was the consequence of Justin's extreme study habits during university?

Justin experienced sleep deprivation, hallucinations, and significant physical, emotional, and mental distress, which he later acknowledged as detrimental to his well-being.

What did Justin learn about studying from his experience in university?

Justin learned the importance of studying efficiently rather than just studying more hours. He discovered the need to understand what type of learning processes produce the desired results and to gain control over his study habits.

How did Justin's approach to learning evolve after entering medical school?

Justin started researching and experimenting with different study techniques, teaching what he learned to other students, and eventually reduced his study time to 3 to 4 hours per week while achieving high academic results.

What is the concept of the 'top point one percent' that Justin refers to in his talk?

The 'top point one percent' refers to the strategies and approaches needed to excel at an elite level, beyond just working harder, where factors like natural intelligence, prior experience, and confidence play a more significant role.

What are the five tips that Justin suggests for staying at the top of academic performance?

The five tips are: 1) Beware of norms and common techniques, 2) Don't chase outcomes, chase processes, 3) Assume you're wrong and be open-minded, 4) Work smarter before working harder, and 5) Recognize that hard work involves doing uncomfortable things that push you through the fear zone.

How does Justin define 'hard work' in the context of his talk?

Justin defines 'hard work' as not just doing more work or more hours, but as the effort to push through the fear zone, learn new skills, and work smarter to achieve uncommon results.

Outlines

00:00

🎓 Personal Reflections on Academic Excellence

In this paragraph, Justin introduces his reaction video to a talk he gave at the New Zealand physics and mass competition. He emphasizes the importance of learning and being good at it, rather than just focusing on academic results. He shares his philosophy that life is more than studying and encourages a balanced approach to education. Justin also discusses his own academic journey, including his experience at Burnside High School and his transition to university, where he realized the need for efficient studying methods over sheer hard work.

05:02

📚 The Pitfalls of Inefficient Studying

Justin recounts his grueling study schedule of 15 to 20 hours a day during his pre-medical studies, which led to physical and mental exhaustion. He admits that this approach was unsustainable and unhealthy, and he warns viewers against following the same path. He stresses the importance of learning efficiency and self-awareness in one's study habits, advocating for a smarter approach to studying rather than mindlessly increasing study hours.

10:03

🚀 Transforming Study Techniques for Success

In this section, Justin shares his journey of transforming his study techniques. He dived into research, experimented with various methods, and taught others what he learned, which allowed him to become more efficient. By the time he graduated, he had significantly reduced his study time and achieved commendable results, including distinctions, first-class honors, and research publications. He also completed a master's degree in a fraction of the usual time while managing his businesses.

15:05

🛠️ The Top Achievers' Study Techniques

Justin discusses the importance of adopting unique and effective study techniques that distinguish top achievers. He emphasizes avoiding common norms and strategies that lead to average results. He introduces the concept of the illusion of competency and the Dunning-Kruger effect, cautioning against overconfidence in one's knowledge and advocating for an open-minded approach to learning.

20:05

🤔 Embracing the Learning Process Over Outcomes

Here, Justin advises viewers to focus on the learning process rather than just the outcomes. He explains that outcomes are influenced by many factors beyond one's control, whereas the process is something that can be managed and improved. He encourages viewers to reflect on their preparation methods when facing unsatisfactory results, rather than fixating on the scores themselves.

🛑 The Importance of Challenging Oneself

In the final paragraph, Justin wraps up his talk by summarizing his key points. He advises being wary of common study norms, focusing on processes rather than outcomes, assuming one might be wrong to stay open-minded, working smarter before working harder, and recognizing that hard work involves stepping out of one's comfort zone. He concludes by encouraging viewers to pursue uncommon results through discomfort and challenges.

Keywords

💡Reaction Video

A reaction video is a type of content where the creator watches and responds to a piece of media, often providing commentary. In this script, Justin is reacting to a talk he gave previously, which is unique because he is not reacting to someone else's content but his own, adding a meta layer to the concept of a reaction video.

💡New Zealand Physics and Mass Competition

This refers to a competitive event for high school students in New Zealand focused on physics and mathematics. It is significant in the script as it sets the context for the talk Justin gave, indicating the high-caliber audience and the importance of the content he shared.

💡Guest Speakers

Guest speakers are individuals invited to speak at events, often to share their expertise or experiences. In the script, Justin mentions that he was invited as a guest speaker alongside lecturers and professors, emphasizing the prestige of being invited and his non-traditional approach to the talk.

💡Value

In the context of the script, 'value' refers to the worth or usefulness of the content Justin aimed to provide during his talk. He wanted to ensure that his 15-minute presentation was beneficial and insightful for the high-achieving students in attendance.

💡Academic Excellence

Academic excellence is the pursuit of high achievement in educational settings. Justin discusses the importance of wanting to do well academically but also emphasizes the need for balance and not stressing solely about studying, which is central to his talk's message.

💡Efficiency

Efficiency, in this context, refers to the effectiveness of one's study methods. Justin reflects on his past study habits, realizing that studying for long hours without considering efficiency was not a sustainable or healthy approach. This concept is a key takeaway from his talk.

💡Dunning-Kruger Effect

The Dunning-Kruger effect is a cognitive bias where people with low ability at a task overestimate their ability. In the script, Justin uses this concept to advise students to assume they might be wrong and to stay open-minded, as overconfidence can hinder learning.

💡Learning Techniques

Learning techniques are methods or strategies used to facilitate learning. Justin's talk and subsequent experiences led him to research and develop more efficient learning techniques, which he now shares with others, showing the evolution of his educational philosophy.

💡Top 0.1 Percent

The term 'top 0.1 percent' signifies an elite group of high achievers. Justin uses this to highlight the unique strategies and approaches needed to excel at such a high level, differentiating them from common practices that may only lead to average results.

💡Fear Zone

The fear zone is a concept that represents the area of discomfort or challenge in learning. Justin discusses the importance of stepping out of one's comfort zone to learn new skills and achieve uncommon results, which is a critical point in his advice for achieving excellence.

💡Working Smart

Working smart refers to using intelligence and strategy to achieve goals more efficiently. Justin emphasizes the importance of working smart over simply working hard, suggesting that effort alone is not enough to achieve top results and that one must also focus on the quality of their work.

Highlights

Justin shares his unique perspective on academic success, emphasizing the importance of learning efficiency over mindless studying.

He discusses his experience as a guest speaker at the New Zealand physics and mass competition, targeting top high school students.

Justin's candid admission of studying 15-20 hours a day during university, leading to physical and mental exhaustion.

The realization that studying more does not necessarily equate to better results, highlighting the concept of diminishing returns.

His journey from overcompensating with hours to mastering efficient learning strategies, resulting in academic excellence.

Justin's transformation from a struggling student to an educator teaching over 10,000 people in 120 countries about efficient learning.

The debunking of the myth that hard work alone guarantees success, urging students to work smart.

The introduction of the 'top 0.1%' concept, focusing on strategies that set high achievers apart from the norm.

A critique of common study techniques, advising students to be wary of following the crowd.

The advice against chasing outcomes and the emphasis on refining the learning process instead.

The concept of the 'illusion of competency' and its impact on continuous learning and improvement.

Justin's rule of thumb for students: ignore confidence and assume you might be wrong to stay open-minded.

The distinction between working hard and working smarter, with a focus on pushing through the 'fear zone'.

A call to action for students to embrace discomfort and challenge themselves beyond their comfort zone.

The importance of self-awareness and experimentation in finding the most effective learning methods.

Justin's personal anecdotes and the impact of his message on students and professionals worldwide.

The conclusion summarizing the key points: beware of norms, chase processes, assume wrongness, work smarter, and embrace hard work beyond just doing more.

Transcripts

hey guys it's Justin here and I am doing

a reaction video a reaction video to a

talk that I gave I'm reacting to myself

giving a talk at the New Zealand physics

and mass competition so this is a

competition that's run for some of the

top high school students around the

country and they solve these really hard

physics and maths problems and I was

invited to be one of the guest speakers

the other speakers were like lecturers

and professors and people sort of

promoting their degree and things I

decided to because I'm not affiliated

with the university I decided to just

give as much value as I possibly could

in the I think 15 minutes that I was

allocated so this is the talk that I

gave and I think it'll be really helpful

to a lot of you and I hope it is

my name is Justin and I'm doing this a

little bit differently to everyone else

because I don't care what uni you go to

I don't care what degree you do I don't

even care if you go to UNI

um all I want all I care about is that

if you want to do well uh academically

and you want to be good at something

then you're going to have to learn I

want you to be good at learning and not

get so stressed about it if that's what

you want to do

because there is more to life than just

studying well some of your parents will

be very shocked but it is true

when I said that line and the actual

thing there were these really awkward

parents in the crowd

Asian parents uh and uh well I think

they were like awkward laughing trying

to sort of play it off but I could tell

you know when they went back home

they're gonna be like that's not true

there's nothing more than life than

studying so yeah a bit awkward there I

want you to be you know less stressed

get proper sleep have a good life and

also be academically uh really good so

this is the five tips of staying at the

top point one percent so just a very

very quick thing about me I'm from a

school called Burnside in Christchurch I

did six subjects okay actually I just

want to make a very quick point the

reason that I'm doing top point one

percent and not top one percent or top

10 is that

to go from doing let's say poorly to

doing fairly well

you can really just study harder to be

totally honest just trying harder and

putting in more effort and just studying

more makes a pretty good difference

the reason that I'm doing this talk

focused around the top you know point

one percent is because the strategies if

you want to be really at that Elite

level

are different you can't necessarily just

do the same things because that's at a

level where small differences and for

example just natural intelligence and

prior experience and just overall

confidence these actually start making

more of a difference and so it's not as

easy as just studying more because

there's diminishing returns for every

extra let's say hour of study you put in

you're not getting an additional one

percent two percent Improvement in your

overall result so it requires you to do

things a little bit differently and

that's really the focus of of this talk

15 and 5 scholarships and I did okay-ish

well like not super amazing but you know

it was okay I then went into pre-mid at

University of Auckland when I entered

into my first year of University I

realized that it was very very quick and

very very high pace so in the first two

weeks of biomed first year university

for just one of the four papers it was

roughly the entirety of year 13 biology

uh it was very very quick so you know

how the lecture is here we're talking

like pretty quick it's like there for

four hours every day and you're tested

on it and you get over 90 percent

so it was a crazy pace and crazy volume

so as a result I compensated by being

equally crazy so I studied 15 to 20

hours a day seven days a week for nine

consecutive months I was extremely sleep

deprived I was literally hallucinating

uh I can yeah that we can talk about

that another time but it was not good uh

very distressful physically emotionally

mentally like all of it just not good I

talk about it with a smile now but no it

was really not not a good time I did do

well though and I was accepted into

Medical School eventually

great so I won but I didn't okay I need

to give some context here I I uploaded a

clip of this on my tick tock

and it kind of went viral and there were

a lot of comments saying it's not

possible to study 15 20 hours a day it's

not necessary to study that much to get

into medical school

and

okay first of all

is it possible to study 15 20 hours a

day it is but not if you want to be

healthy and essentially stay alive okay

here's what I learned in that year

as long as you die slowly enough

no one can tell that you're dying which

is just like an incredibly morbid thing

to say about studying but it's true it

was really really unhealthy I was just

deteriorating in every sense of the word

I don't recommend it to anyone there are

heaps of students that study that much I

know I know lots of students especially

in Asian countries that study a lot and

I know that some of you watching this

maybe in the same situation I want to be

the one the figure of authority whatever

that tells you please don't do that

don't be like me please don't study 15

to 20 hours a day mindlessly with

inefficiency

I

just didn't really think about the

concept of efficiency very much back

then and I know it's hard to believe now

but for real I just didn't think about

it and so I would just compensate for

not knowing how much I need to study

by just studying more because I didn't

know how much was enough I just

compensated by doing more I figured

surely just more is better if I study

for another hour another 30 minutes

another five minutes it's better than

not studying for that five minutes

and that mentality was really what ruled

my life for that entire year obviously

it doesn't really make a lot of sense

not very healthy so I would recommend

for anyone that studies a lot and is not

getting the results that you want to

just learn a little bit more about what

type of learning processes produce what

type of result for you it requires a bit

of self-awareness it requires a bit of

experimentation but it pays off 100 fold

in the long run because it reduces that

anxiety when you know what produces what

result you gain control

and that control is what gives you

confidence it means you can walk into a

test or exam and know how prepared you

really are without being you know

without thinking like how I was thinking

I hope they don't ask me this question

oh man what if they have this in the

test or exam

you don't want to have those thoughts of

plaguing your entire study you want that

level of confidence and you only get

that confidence with control

and then the second point is that do you

need to study this much to enter into

medical school no you do not need to

study that much but if I if you need to

do a you know a high level if you need

to achieve at a certain level and you

don't know how to get to that level like

me then again you just fall into the

Trap of doing more and more and more so

what's the point what's the lesson from

this story is just don't be like me

please think about working smart and the

fact that you're actually even watching

this video probably means you're already

doing better than me so I don't know

maybe I just wasted your time I

apologize anyway we'll get back into the

video

because when I entered into medical

school I realized that the content is

around two to three times pre-med

and then I wasn't majoring in math but I

thought I can't study 15 to 40 hours a

day and so I realized that I need to do

something differently so I started

looking into the research I got very

very deep I really abused the

institutional access to journals that

you get when you're a you know

University student and I read research

papers and articles and I really trial

and errored a lot with my own study

techniques and then I was teaching

students what I was learning about

learning efficiency so I was able to

learn how to learn much faster than a

normal person because I was getting lots

of data points from every single one of

my students and I was tutoring like 20

30 hours a week so I learned a lot of

things and by the time I graduated I'd

gone from studying 20 hours a day to

around three to four hours per week I

graduated with four distinctions and

first class honors and three research

Publications I managed to complete my

full-time master of education which is a

one-year course in six weeks while I was

running my businesses and I've now

taught these learning skills to over 10

000 people in 120 countries I've pretty

much like the best job other than being

a mathematician and a physicist and an

engineer and a web developer uh I I

pretty much I I travel around the world

and I give workshops to students like

yourself or to companies to

professionals scientists

um about how to learn more efficiently

okay so just really really quick note

that I want to interject here with is

the reason that I say said all that

stuff it's not just like random Flex

I as an educator it's important for me

that you know

I'm not just built different

I started from a position where in order

to stand toe-to-toe with the top

Achievers of the year I had to study 15

20 hours a day that's where I started

from I I was massively over compensating

for the fact that I just wasn't

efficient I was just relying on what

sort of natural intelligence I did have

and that was fine for high school when I

hit into uni I had to compensate with

lots of techniques and they were not

very effective the message that I'm

trying to give you the sort of a message

of Hope is that it's not about how smart

you are it's about the results that

you've received with the methods that

you're using and when you change your

methods you can change your results and

that's what I did don't be so harsh on

yourself just because you haven't had a

lot of success in the past maybe if

you've only used two or three methods

across your entire life maybe the

results are simply just a consequence of

the methods that you've been using

about the five tips that my top point

one percent students followed

so the thing that I want to ask you

before I start with this is if I got

let's say like a hundred students that

are in that top point one percent and I

were to say okay here's a technique that

every single one of these top 0.1

students are doing

every single one without fail is doing

this

would you say that that is probably

something that is going to be valuable

for you to learn and that you would want

to apply as part of your Learning System

yes or no like your show of hands up for

Yes and down for everyone put their

hands up

okay

so even the parents this is a thing okay

let's say that we took now 10 000

students

and let's say that of these 10 000

students all 10 000 of them are using a

particular technique and of that 10 000

students 1 000 of them are successful

what is the success rate of this

technique

yell it out

ten percent okay

now

if everyone is doing something

every top achiever will also be doing

that thing

okay so you do not want to have just a

tip that all the high Achievers are

doing you want to do something that only

they are doing right you don't want

something that 90 of people do where 10

of them are successful you want

something that 10 of people do where 90

of the people that do that are

successful right makes sense

so tip number one beware of norms

beware of uh techniques and approaches

and strategies that everyone is doing

Beware of the things that are really

really commonly out there there are

common things that are taught like

YouTube videos and people you know your

friends might say it

there are the common things tend to lead

to Common results

you don't want to just go and do

something purely because that's what

everyone is doing if you notice that a

certain strategy or certain study

technique seems to be so common that

essentially everyone is saying you

should do it you should think again

about it is that really the thing that's

going to set me apart or is it not so

you do not want the five tips that my

top point one percent of students follow

you want the top tips that the other

students don't follow that the 0.1

percent of students do right so that's

tip number one beware of norms

tip number two don't chase outcomes I

work with a lot of students they get

very stressed about exams they get a bad

exam result and then you know like they

sort of spiral uncontrollably and then

every subsequent exam is like more and

more anxiety we don't want that

the thing about an outcome is that

you're only in control of a small

portion of it right an outcome is the

result of your actions other actions

other people's actions and just random

probability which you can't control to

my best knowledge

uh but if you don't have a good outcome

and you're fixed on just chasing this

outcome then you can see nothing else

but that outcome and you get tunnel

vision man I only got like uh 70 for

that last test so I only got 80 for that

test and then you start thinking man

like why didn't I get that result why

didn't I get that result what can I do

about the result and then all you start

seeing is just the outcome

I know people that like print out the

the University degree that they want to

enter into and they they stick it on

their ceiling so they when they wake up

it's the first thing they see they're

like oh I'm manifesting my my dream

career like they're levitating off their

bed into University

but it doesn't work that way

I'm actually serious so outcomes are a

symptom of your process you can't

control outcomes you control processes

so the next time you don't do well in a

test or an exam don't think too much

about the score that you got think about

what was it what component or element

about the process of your preparation

LED you to that result wasn't the result

that you predicted or was it not if it

was what you predicted then what can you

do to change that if it wasn't what you

predicted why were you not able to

predict that okay so think about the

processes and obsess and Chase over the

processes

tip number three assume you're wrong

so there's this thing called the

illusion of Competency has anyone heard

of this show of hands

okay so it basically talks about the

fact that when you know a little bit you

think you know a lot because compared to

knowing nothing a little bit is quite a

lot but if you think that what you know

now is the best it's going to be then it

blocks you off from learning more and

developing and improving even further

and if you think about yourself 10 years

from now do you think that 10 years from

now version of you will not be better at

studying than the version of you right

now you know so we already know that

there's more to learn and we want to

embrace that at full speed so the

illusion of Competency is what will

block us from learning more things

so how can you tell

if you're confident about something

because you really do genuinely know it

really well or if you're just

overconfident and you just don't even

know what you don't know

that's the thing right it's like

self-limiting

so there's a thing called the Dunning

Kruger effect and Dunning Kruger graph

which is controversial in the academic

space for various reasons which I'm not

going to go into now however there is

this graph that's produced like this and

it basically says that when you know

nothing you're very confident and it's

literally called Mount stupid when you

read the paper it actually says Mount

stupid

uh and then you you progress on the

slope of Enlightenment right the thing

that most people don't realize is that

this is a long graph if you want to get

to that top end where you're truly

confident and you have a lot of

knowledge that's decades that we're

talking about right this is you

dedicated your life to this right when

you when you've done like a whole

University degree on it studying it and

then you did your Masters and then you

you know you're commencing on your PhD

do you know where you are you're in the

value of Despair you're thinking like

how will I ever possibly know all of

this

foreign

yeah it's funny because uh as soon as I

said that we had some professors in the

crowd as well and man as soon as I said

that the professors started laughing

they were like cracking up

a little bit too much so they they

obviously felt that I will go into a

little bit of the controversy here in

this video so why is the name Krueger

affecting this graph specifically why is

it controversial some people poke holes

in it there's some criticism about this

because the original paper by Dunning

and Kruger did not have this particular

graph on it in fact if you look at the

paper it's actually it's actually a very

different looking graph

this is a graph that was created based

on the findings

originally sparked by Dunning and Kruger

and then the subsequent findings around

that field and then it was attributed as

the Dunning Kruger graph showing the

Dunning Kruger effect the effect has

been demonstrated in a number of papers

there's different names for illusion of

confidence illusion of Competency done

in Kruger effect

however the graph itself doesn't

originate from the original paper but

actually if you if you look enough at

the research around it you will see that

this is actually a relatively consistent

finding that's been found across a wide

variety of of demographics

so here's my rule of thumb this is why I

teach all my students consciously ignore

your confidence you can't control it

it's the way that your brain is wired

you're gonna be confident about things

that you don't know a lot about I feel

confident about things I don't know a

lot about all the time but then I think

about it have I dedicated at least

around 10 years of my life to learning

about this and if the answer is no just

assume you're wrong you can be both

confident and acknowledge you're wrong

and be actively open-minded at the same

time you don't have to let your

open-mindedness be dictated by how

confident you feel about it because you

literally have nothing to lose from

being open-minded okay

next tip okay I just uh sorry I'm posing

a lot I know but I just wanted to really

really emphasize this one because it is

so important

if there's one thing that I see blocking

Learners of any age from getting better

it is this if you feel confident

and you have not spanned a significant

portion of your life to learn about it

please

acknowledge the idea that you could

actually be wrong about it

and I'm not just saying this to like the

haters in the comments and all that sort

of thing I'm saying this to everyone I

say this I'm saying this to myself as

well

confidence is going to be there there

are going to be things that you do not

know much about and you're going to be

confident about it but if that

confidence is the reason that you think

you are right then that is not a wise

decision you're much more likely to at

least if not be wrong block yourself off

from a lot of really great learning

opportunities and it's very frustrating

as an educator to watch that because

there's so little that can be done to

help someone that isn't in the right

mindset to allow themselves to learn and

absorb

work smarter before working harder don't

do it the other way around

this is important because number one you

can only try so hard there's only so

many hours a day and there's only so

much you can work before you like you

know burn out and deplete yourself

and hard work is not actually very

unique when you're at the top if you're

aiming for something that you know is is

very uh like exclusive like a top level

type of result everyone there is working

hard right like I said I travel the

world and I do these workshops and I say

how many of you are wanting to get like

a certain type of grade or get into a

certain type of degree that's really

competitive you know like 99 of the room

is putting their hands up and I say look

okay well put your hand down if you're

not willing to work really hard no one

puts their hand down everyone's willing

to work hard so in the general

population yes hard work really

separates you from the crowd but it's

not enough to get really in that top

percentage if that's what you're aiming

for

and working smarter also takes a Time

investment it takes time to learn how to

work smarter but if all of your time is

filled with working harder you do not

have time to learn how to work smarter

right and year by year challenges get

more difficult which means that you are

becoming less and less prepared

which leads to tip number five which is

that hard work is not the same thing as

just doing more work

there's a thing called the comfort zone

you've already heard of this before and

then there's this thing called The

Learning Zone and the thing in between

which is called the fear Zone if you

want to get good at something you have

to learn about it and by Nature it means

you're gonna have to Traverse this thing

called The Fear Zone the comfort zone is

the stuff that you're already used to

it's the things that you already know

the fear zone is the stuff that you

don't know it's challenging the way that

you're already doing things and then the

Learning Zone is where you learn new

skills and become a better version of

yourself and then you can you know get

whatever the results that you want are

hard work is about doing the work that

puts you through the fear Zone it's not

about just staying in the comfort zone

and doing more hours and doing more of

the same thing

if every year brings new challenges if

you stay the same you're actually

getting worse you're getting less

prepared if you stay in your comfort

zone

so hard work is not just I'm going to

study more hours I'm going to wake up

earlier I'm going to put in you know

more time than other people if you're

willing to do that great fantastic

that's a great attribute to have but

again hard work has a limit and you want

to use that time and energy to learn how

to work smarter first instead put in the

work to push through the fear and learn

these new skills

so in summary beware of norms because

common results in common number two

don't chase outcomes Chase processes

instead number three just assume you're

wrong because you don't have anything to

lose unless you're dedicated like most

of your life to learning about this

and number four work smarter before

working harder because effort is not

that unique

and number five hard work is not just

more work do the things that are

uncomfortable because no one else can be

bothered to and if you're the one that

can be bothered to do the thing that's

uncomfortable then that means that

you're the one that's going to get the

uncommon result okay that's all the time

I've got and I don't think there's any

type of questions

yeah so yeah that's the video I actually

don't have anything else to say about

that but thank you for watching if you

liked it then please leave a like and a

subscribe you know the draw and if

you've got any comments or questions

about this leave them in the comments

we'll have a read and I'll try to

address them in future videos and things

like that so

thanks for watching see you next time