Smart work pays off 

“You can not achieve anything unless you work hard”, “You must work hard to shine”, “If you don't work hard you wont be successful” and so many things more about hard work have been told to us from the very beginning.  The concept “ hard work = success” is immovable in our mindset. I see parents, teachers and leaders encouraging their children, students and workers to work hard. From small creatures to humans, everyone works hard to get what they want, yet only few get what they want.

The question is when everyone is working hard how can one make his or her way to the destination. The journey to success is not as hard as we assume based on some perceptions of people and their experiences. We must remember the situation is powerless, it's the response which gives power to the situation.The journey to success until and unless it is treated as a journey once it is treated as a battle it turns into a war zone of mind and peace where peace does not exist at all its all chaos  and mayhem. 

“Winners do not do different things but the way of doing is different “ this quote not only signifies the significance of smart work but also gives a great path to stand out of the crowd.Smart work doesn't mean you will have short cuts for every problem. It means you have a unique way to do the task, different from the crowd. Elon Musk, Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates are quite notable examples of people who were away from the influence of the crowd.

Students work hard for better results yet many of them fail to pull off their expectations and end up stressing out themselves, questioning and doubting their abilities and losing self esteem in themselves. Hard work alone is not enough. Let’s recall the story we heard in our childhood about a farmer who used to sharpen his tools everyday before going into the forest for woodcutting.Sharpening is necessary it makes him do his work more efficiently and also saves his time.

There are certain things which help students to work smart as well as hard to bring about the best in their academics. 

Before anything else , notes are momentous. Self notes work at their best,once you gather notes in class try to recall them at home and summarize them in your own way so you can have clarity about the topic and better understanding.All the time it's best to understand topics rather than mugging them up.

Once you have prepared notes and understood the concept you can use several short notes or diagrams or even charts to recall them.

Repetition is the key to long term learning so rather than study 20 hours before exam hour, we ought to study 3 or 4 hours everyday. These techniques are not only effective for securing great scores at exams but also for long term learning.

We tend to forget most of the things we have studied after the day we attended exams since it's all stored in our short term memory. Once we follow the repetition technique, we can learn things for a lifetime without actually forgetting and being confused.

Along with these techniques, the right quality of food in the right quantity is a must. Nuts, dark chocolate, broccoli,turmeric, pumpkin seeds, beetroots, avocado, coconut oil,mint, legumes, coffee and fatty fish help us to increase our learning.

Exercise is a must to keep your brain healthy to function. Meditation helps to calm our body, mind and soul and also increases our potential to work as it sharpens our concentration. Meditation increases our focus to accomplish our task.

Implementing these techniques, diet, exercises and meditation one does not need to push himself hard to achieve goals. One can easily maintain his consistency and pull off success in his or her unique way. If we roam around a forest at dark we cannot find our way, unless we have light.Consciousness to carry out any task in the right direction with right techniques lead us to reach our destination.