The "Working Hard" Delusion: Why You’re Tired But Not Moving

I spent most of 2025 exhausted. Not the kind of exhaustion that a long weekend can fix, but a deep, systemic fatigue that comes from running at full speed and realizing you haven't actually left the starting line.

For a long time, I bought into the most common lie in our productivity culture: that if the results aren't coming, you just need to apply more force. Work harder. Stay later. Grind more. I treated my life like a heavy stone that I needed to move through sheer willpower. But as I sat down to evaluate my progress for 2026, I saw the truth. I was incredibly busy, but I wasn't being effective.

I wasn’t lacking effort. I was suffering from the "Working Hard" Delusion—the belief that the weight of the stone matters more than where you place the lever.

The Physics of Effort

In school, we learn about the basic mechanics of a lever and a fulcrum. If the fulcrum—the pivot point—is placed too far from the object you’re trying to lift, you have to exert an impossible amount of energy to move it even an inch. If you move that pivot point closer to the object, that same stone can be lifted with a flick of a finger.

I realized my life was a mess of poorly placed pivot points. I was trying to change things at the heaviest level possible: the level of events and immediate actions. I was trying to "fix" my fatigue by adding more sleep, or "fix" my lack of focus by buying better apps. I was exerting massive force at the end of a long lever, wondering why I was burning out while the needle barely moved.

The Leverage Point

The problem with the "hustle" mindset is that it encourages us to be the force, rather than the architect of the system. We take pride in the sweat, but sweat is often just a symptom of inefficiency.

True leverage doesn’t come from working longer hours. It comes from finding what systems-thinkers call the "Leverage Point"—the specific place in a system where a small shift can produce a massive change.

In almost every case, that point isn't found in your calendar or your to-do list. It’s found in your mindset. When you change how you see cause and effect, or how you define what "enough" looks like, you aren't just changing a task—you are moving the fulcrum. You are making it so that every ounce of effort you put in from that moment on is ten times more effective.

Shifting the Fulcrum

Shifting the fulcrum feels like cheating because it makes things feel easier. We are conditioned to believe that if it’s easy, it’s not "real" work. But the goal shouldn't be to see how much weight we can carry until we break; the goal should be to move the stone.

For me, this meant stopping the constant optimization of my routines and starting to question the beliefs that made those routines necessary in the first place. It meant realizing that my "Working Hard" Delusion was actually a shield—a way to avoid the much harder, more uncomfortable work of redesigning my system and setting firmer boundaries.

Closing Thoughts

We are heading into a new era where "busy" is no longer a status symbol; it’s a red flag. It’s a sign that your leverage is off.

I’m learning to stop being proud of my exhaustion. Now, when I feel overwhelmed, I don’t ask myself how I can work harder. I ask myself where I’ve placed my pivot point. Because at the end of the day, life doesn’t reward the person who pushed the hardest against a wall that wouldn't budge. It rewards the person who found the lever.