No, You Don't Need To Work More To Achieve More. Here's Why

“But Patrick, if I slow down, focus on doing fewer things and protect time for rest and recovery, won’t I become lazy? What has made me successful in my career so far has been my work ethic and drive. I’m worried that in slowing down I will lose that.”

A great challenge one of our community members shared with me this past week - an internal debate voiced out loud.

“Slow down, be more deliberate with your time and intentional with your recovery - your health and performance will improve,” said one voice in their head. Before the louder, unforgiving one butted in: “Don’t slow down! You’ll be overtaken. To achieve more, you need to do more!”

It’s a common challenge, which is why I want us to talk about it today: the clash between what I call the “Grind to Succeed” mentality and the “Do Less Better” philosophy.

I get it. I used to believe that outworking everyone around me was the key to my success too. I was once convinced that working longer hours and squeezing more work into each of those hours, would lead to more success.

And this mindset is common among high performers. Maybe you share it too? Perhaps you’ve even had similar doubts while reading previous emails - doubts about what you might lose by adopting a Sustainable High Performance approach.

But, just because a certain mindset has helped you succeed in your career so far, doesn’t mean that shifting it will lead to less success.

In fact, I’d say - based on what I see time and time again with the people that I work with - you’ll achieve more. You’ll also enjoy life a lot more. But that, my friends, is for another day.

Slowing down is relative too. If someone’s coasting through each day doing the bare minimum, slowing down might lead to a hard stop. That person definitely doesn’t need to slow down. They need to speed up (but not before finding a job that they actually care about and enjoy).

On the other hand, for driven, ambitious high performers, the more common challenge is working too much, not too little.

Go into any office today and I am confident that you will see many ambitious, tired and stressed people, jumping from meeting to meeting, with little to no breaks during the day. 

The office worker who spends their lunchtime at their desk frantically shovelling a Pret sandwich down their gullet while desperately trying to get an email out to a client before their next call. No judgement, I've been there. 

Try telling me that person is operating at peak levels of performance, as they wipe the mayo off their mouth before jumping into their next call. They might be doing well compared to peers - but there’s so much untapped potential there that could be unlocked with an upgraded mindset and approach.

Slowing down and doing less doesn’t mean working less hard. We’re not just doing less - we’re, in the words of Marcus Aurelius, “doing less, better.” And, as Josh Waitzkin says, “doing less is a huge part of doing more.”

So let go of that limiting belief that focusing your time on fewer, higher-value projects will kill your drive. What we’re doing, by, for example, applying the Pareto 80/20 Principle, is removing the non-essential and redirecting energy toward what matters most.

Taking time to rest instead of being constantly online isn’t laziness. I understand how it can feel like it is. But being intentional, choosing not to spend time on meaningless work in order to focus on what truly matters and taking the time to rest so that you can perform at your best? That’s not laziness, not in my eyes at least.

This can be hard to accept because, as Tim Ferriss, the flavour of the month, says, “culture rewards personal sacrifice over personal productivity.”We’ve been conditioned to believe that achieving more requires workingmore.

So what is laziness?

I’d say it’s letting life happen to you - drifting on autopilot, enduring a sub-optimal day-to-day existence, letting others dictate how your days, weeks, years and ultimately life unfolds. Blaming others and circumstances for where you are but not taking any action to change. 

Or, as Ferriss puts it: “to amass a fortune while passing through life like a spectator from an office window.”

Now that is what I'd say is laziness. Not living with purpose. Not choosing in advance what matters most. Not saying “no” so you can say “yes” to what counts. Not taking breaks (micro and macro) to switch off, so that you can consistently perform at your best when you switch it back on. 

So yes, I understand your fears - losing your drive, falling behind. Hustle culture tells us to speed up, not slow down. And change is uncomfortable - which is why many choose unhappiness over uncertainty.

But perhaps that discomfort of making this change is exactly what you need. And maybe, just maybe it’s time to, as a wiseman once said, “get uncomfortable”.