{"id":76,"date":"2023-11-20T13:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-11-20T13:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/moneywithkatie.com\/conventional-success-secrets\/"},"modified":"2025-08-29T21:09:11","modified_gmt":"2025-08-29T21:09:11","slug":"conventional-success-secrets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/moneywithkatie.com\/conventional-success-secrets\/","title":{"rendered":"The Secret to Success Nobody Talks About"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Success\u2014financial and otherwise\u2014is not tied to abnormally high levels of self-control and discipline, though it\u2019s tempting to believe it is. If you could just work a little harder, be a little more disciplined, and exercise a little more self-control<\/span><\/a>, all your dreams would come true, right? <\/p>\n

We hear this rhetoric about everything<\/span><\/a> from our fitness goals to our financial goals: <\/p>\n

If you just had the willpower to get up earlier and exercise, you\u2019d be more fit. <\/p>\n

If you just had the self-control to stop spending, you\u2019d have more money.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\n \u201c<\/span>It feels fair\u2014if someone works harder, they should achieve more.\u201d<\/span>\n <\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n
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If you just had the discipline to work longer hours, you\u2019d earn more.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s compelling because it feels fair<\/em>\u2014if someone works harder, they should<\/em> achieve more.<\/p>\n

We buy into this \u201cmeritocracy messaging\u201d: that if we want to achieve great things or experience success, it has to feel like work. A healthy body, an overflowing bank account, an amazing job\u2026surely these aspects of Adulting Porn are only available to those with the self-control and work ethic to arduously strive for them, right?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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But successful people are not more disciplined\u2014they\u2019ve just found approaches they enjoy.<\/h2>\n

Take exercise and healthy eating, for example: I don\u2019t enjoy<\/em> wandering around a big box gym, poking at a few smelly machines, and indiscriminately curling dumbbells. So guess what? I don\u2019t. If my only option for exercise were this hypothetical poorly lit big box gym with bad \u201980s music and zero structure, I\u2019d probably never exercise. <\/p>\n

At my most fit, I was going to 7\u20139 fitness classes per week. I loved the format of the classes, I loved the music, I loved the instructors\u2014I thoroughly enjoyed my time in these classes, even if we were doing four straight minutes of burpees at 5:45am.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\n \u201c<\/span>It wasn\u2019t discipline that pulled me forward\u2014it was joy.\u201d<\/span>\n <\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n
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It wasn\u2019t discipline<\/em> that pulled me forward\u2014it was joy<\/em>. As soon as it became genuinely enjoyable, it was easy to work out. It actually required very little<\/em> discipline.<\/p>\n

This is the secret that productivity experts already know<\/span><\/a>: It\u2019s why they encourage \u201cgetting into flow state,\u201d the magical, psychological zone wherein time collapses, the work becomes fun, and you derive a deep sense of satisfaction from whatever you\u2019re doing.<\/p>\n

So often we assume it\u2019s the person who, regardless of the environment, determines the outcomes. We don\u2019t give our environment<\/span><\/a> enough credit.<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s easy to make good decisions when the good decisions feel good<\/em>. Rather than trying to change yourself, try changing your environment instead.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Hard work \u2260 guaranteed higher income<\/h2>\n

Similarly, working really hard doesn\u2019t guarantee you\u2019re going to make a lot of money. <\/p>\n

Most low-wage workers are busting their asses. People with money are often no harder working than those without it. But the paradoxical relationship between work that feels \u201ceasy\u201d and the amount of money I earn used to confuse me: How is it that I enjoy what I do more and<\/em> earn more now? <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\n \u201c<\/span>It takes more effort to pull ourselves away than to keep going.\u201d<\/span>\n <\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n
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This two-hour-long<\/span><\/a> interview with MrBeast<\/span><\/a> encapsulates it well: MrBeast, aka Jimmy Donaldson, has been making YouTube videos since he was a kid, raking in more than 24 billion views on his channel and 100+ million subscribers. When he\u2019s asked how he\u2019s achieved so much by age 25, he has a simple answer: He\u2019s obsessed with it. Working on videos for 18 hours a day is what he wants<\/em> to do. <\/p>\n

The idea that you have to be intensely exerting yourself or displaying herculean feats of discipline day after day to achieve outstanding results is perhaps the biggest con of all. The best results usually come from the things that make us forget to eat because we\u2019re so engrossed. It takes more <\/em>effort to pull ourselves away than to keep going.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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This is why it\u2019s crucial to pursue alignment in your life (and work, and health, and all the other things that impact your quality of life).<\/h2>\n

When the things you\u2019re doing (your habits, your thought patterns, etc.) are in alignment with the essence of who you are, how you learn, and what you\u2019re good at, successful results follow naturally. No need to strong-arm or force yourself to do the things you think you\u2019re supposed to do\u2014ease<\/em> is the real goal. <\/p>\n

Sure, there are people out there who eat dry grilled chicken with plain brown rice every day and work \u201cboring\u201d data entry jobs, but I\u2019d venture a guess that the repetition and predictability of those choices is just what works for their personality types. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\n \u201c<\/span>They\u2019re not harder working or smarter or better than you\u2014they\u2019ve just stumbled into alignment.\u201d<\/span>\n <\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n
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The next time you\u2019re tempted to look at someone else who seems to have it all and think, \u201cGosh, it just seems so easy for them,\u201d you\u2019re probably right! They probably are<\/em> doing something that feels easy to them, and that\u2019s why it\u2019s going well. That\u2019s how they manage to do it. <\/p>\n

They\u2019re not harder working or smarter or better than you\u2014they\u2019ve just stumbled into alignment.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Success\u2014financial and otherwise\u2014is not tied to abnormally high levels of self-control and discipline, though it\u2019s tempting to believe it is. If you could just work a little harder, be a little more disciplined, and exercise a little more self-control, all your dreams would come true, right?  We hear this rhetoric about everything from our fitness […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":178814,"featured_media":2429,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"si-template-single-post-income.php","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[40],"class_list":["post-76","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-productivity-and-time","tag-income"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Secret to Success Nobody Talks About - Money with Katie<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/moneywithkatie.com\/conventional-success-secrets\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Secret to Success Nobody Talks About - Money with Katie\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Success\u2014financial and otherwise\u2014is not tied to abnormally high levels of self-control and discipline, though it\u2019s tempting to believe it is. 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