Friday Review: EFFORT
How much effort do you put into your life or business? Here are a few effort-related posts you may have missed. Click on the Quote to read the full message:
“The highest reward for a person’s toil is not what they get for it, but what they become by it.”
“The price of anything is the amount of life you exchange for it.”
“You can either throw in the towel, or use it to wipe your sweat.”
image from Flickr by Giovanni Orlando
The dandelion is often considered a pesky weed popping up in our lawns each spring. We describe dandelions as “invasive,” as if they were an alien life form that must be eradicated from our lawns, parks, and ball fields.
When you learn a bit about dandelions, you discover their numerous health benefits, such as:
Instead of weeds, let’s talk about people. Who are the “weedy” folks you would like to remove or eradicate from your life? What might be possible if, instead, you made efforts to get to know them better?
image from bigfishmedia.ca
When I consider the idea of fighting the old ways of doing things, I think of the phrase, whatever we resist persists. Notice how some of your own less-than-desirable habits or behaviors seem to stick around no matter how much you try to fight them off. The act of building things is much like a replacement strategy where we insert what we desire into our lives instead.
What would be the biggest difference in your personal or professional life if you stopped fighting the old and started building the new?
One of the things I enjoy about certain quotes is their catchiness and rhythm. That they also communicate a fundamental truth is critical. These factors generate a stickiness that allows us to carry them in our minds wherever we go.
Examine the levels of Heart and Hustle you currently bring to your personal and professional efforts. Notice that if your Heart is not in it, your level of Hustle will rarely be, either.
What adjustments can you make in your heartfelt attitudes and efforts to set you apart from your previous self and those around you?
Image from getyourbridebody.com
When was the last time you had a really rigorous workout? You know, the kind that makes your muscles burn, makes you gasp for air, and drenches you in sweat?
Where do you, or have you, demonstrated similar efforts in your personal or professional life?
How often do you give things your all? With what frequency do you merely put in enough effort just to get by? How often do you throw in the towel and give up completely?
What are the key tasks or priorities in which you could dig deeper, make a stronger commitment, or break more of a sweat? With whom can you partner to coach, encourage, and challenge you to give these goals your very best?
Image from Flickr by symphony of love.
Asking people to do their best, to seek excellence, on a key project or top priority seems like the ultimate cliché of coaching. Blogs, books, and quotes related to this simple idea abound.
What does doing your best truly mean? For most of us, it often seems impossible, given the image we have in our minds about how our “best” can look.
Consider the idea that we all have a “best continuum,” in which what we’re capable of varies depending on the day or time. Consider, too, that your actions are like planting seeds and tending a garden, where all efforts count and add up.
What does your best effort look like today? Take a moment to acknowledge and appreciate yourself, knowing that the sum total of all your daily bests will bring you the harvest you seek.
One of the first quotes I ever shared in The Quotable Coach series was “time is the coin of life” – how we spend our time and who we spend it with literally has a price.
Examine your life domains and ask yourself if each investment of your valuable life equity was worth it.
Consider making a few adjustments by doing more of some things, less of others, and starting a few new and interesting activities – and of course stopping those intolerable ones that you regret the most.
Image from news.com.au
Many years ago, I read a book called The Slight Edge, with the fundamental premise that the little extra makes a big difference in life.
In golf, it can be one stroke over the course of a four day tournament that wins the match. In a race, it can be a single step or fraction of a second that makes the difference. And in a horse race, we have all heard the phrase “winning by a nose.”
Where in your professional and personal life can you put forth that extra effort, to realize the extraordinary?
Choose this area now and tell someone close to you, so that you will receive the extra support you may need.
Is the giant within you fully asleep, taking a catnap, or just a bit drowsy these days?
What are some strategies to waken this giant to the status of full alert?
Consider the following ideas:
1. Identify the giants and leaders in your organization or community and practice similar behaviors.
2. Double your efforts on any worthwhile endeavor – and see what level of accomplishment results.
3. Cut the amount of time you give yourself to accomplish key tasks in half, to create greater urgency – and see what happens.
Send me your best ideas that you have used to create miracles in your professional and personal life. (Email me at barry@dempcoaching.com.)
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Image from webstaurantstore.com
When she was a child, my mother lived in an apartment above the fruit store her father managed. She would sometimes help him polish the apples and display the fruit as engagingly as possible to attract customers.
Have you ever bitten into a shiny apple, only to find out that what was inside was mushy? You would never use such apples for juice.
Look at your own life as a fruit basket of people and experiences. Where are you putting your efforts? Is the juice of your life worth the squeezing?