Hard Work Pays Off
“Hard Work Pays Off” is the coined mantra of 5x CrossFit Games champion Mat Fraser. You can see it written on the walls of gyms around the world, adorning T-Shirts, shoes and tattoos. If you search for fitness motivational quotes on Instagram it comes up first and Mat Fraser has undoubtedly worked very hard in his career. He gave up his job in order to become a full time CrossFit athlete, and after 2 second place finishes at the CrossFit Games he left no stone unturned on his quest to become the CrossFit Champion (to the point where he would not use a sharp knife in the lead up to the games in case he accidentally cut himself). This approach ultimately led him to 5 victories and being the most dominant male athlete in the history of the sport.
So he worked hard, trained all day everyday, dialled in the best nutrition, sleep, mindset he could.
It can be easy to think that in order to achieve our goals we need to do more. Train more, grind more. More hours in the gym or on the trail, more time focusing on mindset and dialling in your nutrition.
For example some people reach a point of training twice a day every day of the week. Often they are training their strengths, the things that they are good at and being comfortable in your efforts. It can be super fun to go into the gym and just do the things you are good at. But is that moving you towards your goal? You are doing a lot but what are you really improving?
Mat Fraser has talked often about how “Hard Work Pays Off” doesn't necessarily mean that we need to do more in order to find success - it means we need to do what's hard. And that is what he did in order to find success. He talks about this often after his second 2nd place finish in 2015.
“I was disappointed, humiliated, and ready to quit. I knew that I’d lost–or maybe it’s more accurate to say that I’d choked–because I cut corners and if I wanted to make another run at the Games, I’d have to be all in.”
In fact, he took 37th out of 39 in the sprint event in 2015. How did he address this weakness? He trained with a local high school track team in Vermont. “Coach Pol always paired me with the kid who would become a Vermont state champion in the 100 [metre sprint],” Fraser wrote, “and he would blow my doors off every race.” “This is what I needed,” he continued, “I train best when I feel scared that my hard work won’t pay off because then I feel like I have to focus on every little detail to get progress wherever I can.”
Targeting weaknesses and putting in effort to rectify these deficiencies isn't going to be comfortable, but it will be effective. Discomfort is where you get better and put in the Hard Work.
Everyone will have different weaknesses that will require hard work to improve upon. Whether this is doing what you’re bad at in your training sessions until it's a strength. Some of us need to prioritise sleep, others easily get 9 hours per night but they need to work on nutrition and fuelling well.
So, take a minute to think about your own goals. What's the hard thing you would rather not do but you know will move you closer to that goal?
Conversely, you can reflect on the areas you waste time doing lots of busy work. What areas of your life do you regularly do “more” rather than what's hard?
It is important to reflect on where you may be doing more when you could just be doing what's hard. Treading water is easier than swimming but you aren't going to get very far doing it.