We like to believe we should be rewarded for hard work. That if we put in the time and effort, people will take notice, and acknowledge and appreciate the time and effort we put in.

And to a certain extent, that’s true. Hard work does get rewarded.

But here’s the common misconception.

Hard work isn’t about the amount of hours you put in. It’s not about how many days you’ve spent slaving over a project, or the amount of sleep you’ve lost.

True hard work, the hard work that really counts, is about how much of yourself you put in your work. It’s how far you step out of your comfort zone. How much fear and resistance you have to push through to ship.

Hard work is measured not in the amount of hours, but in the amount of heart you put into what you do.