You won’t make more money working harder

Growing up, I dreamed of being intelligent, muscular, and fulfilled.

To achieve those, I needed more time.

To get more time, I needed more money.

So the first step to building my dream life was entrepreneurship.

Shortly after starting my first online business, I was taught to ignore every aspect of my life except the business to make more money.

And as a beginner with no perspectives of my own, I blindly followed the experts.

My schedule was:

• Wake up at 4 am

• Work on the business for 3 hours

• Eat

• Work for 3 hours

• Eat

• Read for 2 hours

• Work for 4 hours

• Eat

• Work until I can’t keep my eyes open (Naruto style)

• Repeat

At first, I was stacking more cash. 

Yay! Wi-Fi money, woo hoo!

But soon, I couldn’t earn any more.

Because it turns out that 15-hour workdays and 5-hour rest nights dry up your mental, physical, and spiritual health.

My mind was erratic, making it impossible to think or focus.

My body caked from sitting all day, making it hard to be productive.

And I felt miserable. The inexistent joy from my work reflected in my writing and conversations, making it difficult to help anyone.

I became an entrepreneur to eradicate the gap between my current and ideal life, but I ended up widening it.

Eventually, I became so fed up with my lack of progress that I changed my routine. Instead of hard scoping on business, I diversified my attention to the other areas of my life — mind, body, and spirit.

The results were astronomical.

I was more focused and creative.

I was more productive.

I was fulfilled.

And I earned more money than before.

You see, we must work hard to achieve our goals. But without intention, hard work becomes self-destructive.

A holistic — considering all parts — model creates a solid foundation to achieve your goals and enjoy the journey.

Today, I’ll reveal the problem with today’s work culture and show you how to work harder (without harming your growth).

Do you want to build a 5,000+ following on X and start getting paid to do work that feels like play?

To make a living from purposeful living instead of a sucky 9-5?

Then, you’re in luck because I just opened some 1:1 coaching slots.

If that interests you, click here to work with me.

HustleMania

(Unrelated, but WrestleMania Saturday was a blast.)

“If you sleep over 6 hours a night, you don’t want it bad enough.”

“I only work. Everything else is a distraction.”

“Sleep is for the weak. I’ll sleep when I’m dead.”

The general doctrine of today’s society glorifies hustle and vilifies hobbies.

Money, fame, and power define people.

Those without are, well, less than people.

To survive and gain recognition, people follow the default path.

• Go to school.

• Get a degree.

• Get a job.

• Climb the corporate ladder until your bones are too weak to reach ‘new heights’.

• Retire at 65 — and finally start living.

• Die.

• Reincarnate (hopefully) and repeat.

From an evolutionary perspective, this checks out.

50,000 years ago, we had to work ceaselessly to survive. Those who didn’t put in the reps died or faced exile — and then died. Nothing else mattered except survival. Were people depressed back then? No one knew, and no one cared.

But today, survival is no longer a priority.

In most countries, there is a surplus of food, clothing, and technology. Rather than hunt for our next meal or stay on guard in anticipation of a bear attack, we can now focus on enjoying our life instead of just staying alive.

When I say “enjoy,” I don’t mean playing video games, emptying a beer bottle, or living on TikTok 24/7. That’s pleasure (aka shallow happiness). Enjoyment (aka deep happiness) is what you feel when you’re doing what you were born to do. It comes from achieving your self-generated goals (masculine) and being present in each moment (feminine).

Without enjoyment, our lives lose meaning.

Pursuing this enjoyment has led to instrumental creations.

Alexander Graham Bell and the cellphone.

The Wright Brothers and the aeroplane.

Steve Jobs and the iPhone.

But most people remain in survival mode because their mind — which hasn’t evolved in 50,000 years — controls them. Led by their survival-driven mind, these people spend the rest of their lives hunting down the goals society assigned them. It’s no wonder the masses are miserable.

If you invest all your efforts into making money, you’ll make more money. But only in the short term.

In the long term, your mental, physical, and spiritual health, which you sacrificed for your financial health, will anchor you down. You’ll be operating on 1/4th of your potential and never enjoying the one shot at life you get.

Prioritising business now and neglecting other aspects of life is a delusional ideal.

There are 7 days in a week and “someday“ isn’t one of them.

A body in motion will remain in motion.

As your business grows, you’ll get busier and it’ll become harder to unplug from that lifestyle.

No one: “I want to be the billionaire who looks and feels miserable.”

Everyone: does exactly that

I understand you want the best conditions for yourself and your family. But you can’t give them your best when you’re not at your best.

It’s time to operate at your full potential, not 1/4th.

It’s time to become everything you dreamt of as a child.

It’s time to build using the holistic model.

The Holistic Work Model

Health is wealth.

And true health is multi-dimensional.

• Mind

• Body

• Spirit

• Business

Strong mental health improves physical, spiritual, and business health.

Strong physical health boosts your mental, spiritual, and business health.

Strong spiritual health enhances your mental, physical, and business health.

Strong business health nourishes your mental, physical, and relationship health.

Building all at once — aka building holistically — helps you create heaven on earth.

The holistic work model solves toxic masculinity (intense work and no play) and toxic femininity (intense play and no work).

Here’s how to build it:

(1) Identify your priorities

You need a goal.

A goal gives your life meaning and with meaning comes an enjoyable existence.

• What change do you want to see in the world? (Financial goal)

• What do you want to be exceptional at? (Mental goal)

• What do you want in your obituary? (Spiritual goal)

• What do you want to look like? (Physical goal)

Those are lifetime goals for each life area. 

Good for vision, but terrible for clarity.

So create a sequence of goals to make them concrete and easy to track in the following order:

• 1-lifetime goal

• 1-decade goal

• 1-year goal

• 1-quarter goal

• 1-month goal

• 1-week goal

• 1-day goal

• 1-moment goal

(2) Create a routine

Make your quarterly (90-day) goals your compass and figure out the actions needed to hit them.

Bonus points if those actions align with your unique curiosities and capacities. This is how you turn work into play.

To turn those actions into habits, you need a routine. 

Craft your routine in favour of your priorities.

In this current phase of life, my priorities are:

• Business

• Spirit

• Body

• Mind

So I spend more daily hours on business than on spirit, and so forth.

Assemble a routine that fits your goals in order.

(3) Work hard

No work, no win.

Most people think they need more motivation. But what they actually need is clarity, higher standards, and progress. If you have a sequence of goals, you have all the clarity you need. Now, it’s time to “push p”. So plant your buttcheeks on your chair and start working.

If your work is overwhelming, simplify it.

Writing a sales page becomes:

• Turning on the laptop

• Entering your passwords

• Whipping up chrome

• Opening your writing software

• Sipping fruit juice

• Telling yourself you can do this

• Writing the first word

This is operationalising. It’s a skill we all had but lost thanks to video games and the school system, whose excessive guidance stripped us of our autonomy.

If you struggle to focus, stop trying to focus. Remove everything that isn't what you want to work on right now, even if it's productive.

Your mind pulls you away from your work because it hates experiencing the negative emotions generated by facing difficulty. When recording your first podcast, for example, your mind will do one of three things:

• induce emotions like stress and fear

• introduce other pleasurable options like gaming or calling a friend

• introduce other productive options like cleaning your room or writing a tweet

All share one common aim: to stop you from doing what’s most difficult.

We only grow when we enter the unknown, so we must learn to co-exist with negative emotions. 

See, negative emotions aren't so negative. They help us spot problems, making it easier for us to fix them and feel positive. Feel bad ≠ Is bad. Don't keep them around, though. That's when they get nasty.

Let’s imagine you want to write a 3,000-word newsletter. Here’s how to get it done:

• Clear your table of everything except your laptop, a sheet of paper, and a pen

• Set a timer for how long you plan to write

• Start writing

• Don’t get up unless you must (ex: an unbearable #2 or a fire outbreak)

• If your mind suggests other tasks, note them, and schedule it for later.

Do this consistently to discipline your mind. Over time, you’ll build a monk-like level of focus.

Even when you feel like you’re wasting time and doing something else seems better, stick to the plan. Don’t allow the fear of wasting a day to make you waste your entire life. Respect yourself.

Work until your work rate drops. Then stop, mark it as your limit, and work 4% more tomorrow. 

This is how you grow.

To stay consistent, reward yourself and track every workday so you’re motivated to never stop.

(4) Rest hard

So far, we’ve established what to work on.

But without this, you’ll never reap the fruit of your labour.

Most men hate this and avoid it because it’s not very masculine.

Rest.

If you’re like me 2 months ago, relaxing feels like hell. You’re constantly seeking improvement and each moment you halt feels like death — the death of who you could be.

But you must understand that rest is work, albeit indirectly.

You’re not a robot. You’re made of skin, not steel.

Rest is work because it recharges you and prepares you to work again. 8-hour workdays deserve 8-hour rest nights. Both must align or you’ll manifest burn-out or premature death.

God created the Earth in 6 days and blessed it by resting on the 7th.

But many don’t understand rest. They think it means sleeping or being one with the couch.

Rest is an activity that takes our minds off work to prepare us to work later.

Sleep isn’t rest. It’s a form of rest.

Here are the 7 types of rest based on Dr Dalton-Smitt’s book, Sacred Rest.

1. Physical Rest

   - sleeping

   - massages

   - stretching

2. Mental Rest

   - storing information in notes rather than your mind

   - brain-dumping your thoughts

   - making hard decisions

   - organising your life

   - meditating

3. Social Rest

   - spending less time with energy-suckers

   - spending more time with energy-givers

   - spending time alone (especially if you’re more introverted)

4. Sensory Rest

   - turning off notifications, alarms, and other noises

   - spending less time in front of a screen

   - taking a break from social media

5. Spiritual Rest

   - immersing yourself in spiritual activities

   - contributing to charity

   - doing work that’s aligned with your purpose

6. Emotional Rest

   - spending less time with people you can’t be vulnerable with

   - spending more time with people who appreciate your vulnerability

   - considering therapy

7. Creative Rest

   - walking in nature

   - admiring beautiful works (parks, museums)

   - picking up a creative hobby (drawing, sculpting, painting, cooking, etc)

Pick one rest-activity in each category and make a time to do it in your calendar.

Take this test to identify your top priority and work on it.

Happy holistic working, friend.

— Francis

PS: If you want to build an audience online and get paid to practically play, work with me 1:1.

PPS: I just launched a podcast. Listen, follow, and rate the show (if you like it).