The hard work mantra, I think we all get it. At least we’ve all heard it.

Hustle and grind, seem to be the key theme of today’s social memes. And it’s true, you have to work unreasonably hard to make it, and to achieve the success you want.

The problem with today’s emphasis on hard work, hustle and grind memes is they don’t give us much indication on what we should be grinding on.

Because of that, most of us are hustling on the wrong things.

We’re focusing outward, hustling to move and make the things around us work in our favor.

Sorry wrong focus, we need to be focusing on ourselves — on getting better.

Another way to put it is, the hustle needs to be applied internally. We need to learn how to hack ourselves. Before we try and hack our surroundings, and drive our way to success, we have to become the best at we do. We have to become a 1%er.

You can work at something for years. I mean work your ass off, but if you suck at it, or even if you’re good, just not great, it won’t matter. You’re not going to achieve the holy grail of success you want.

At the core of success is greatness.  It doesn’t matter who you pick, every person who’s achieved a semblance of success did it because they were really good at something.

Yes, they work hard. Yes, the put in the hours. Yes, they grinded it out. But in the end, the majority of that time was spent getting better at what they dom at their talent. They were maniacal about becoming the best.

You see, once you’re the best, once you’re a 1%er, then and only then is pure hustle the differentiator.

Stop worrying about the hustle and start worrying about personal improvement.

Hack YOU to success, that’s the golden ticket.