Effort & Success

Unless you’re a professional powerlifter, your success isn’t only measured by how much effort you can exert. Ultimately how you feel and the quality of your experience is the thing that matters most. Yes, there are bills to be paid and it’s important to have food on the table. I’m not minimizing the importance of basic needs. Sometimes a practical choice is the one that’s the most urgent.
Where in your life can you begin to give more consideration to how you feel about the effort you’re exerting?

There’s a saying: “Do what you love and you’ll never work a day in your life.” My apologies to whomever said that, but it’s bullshit. Having spent the past almost three years building my practice from the ground up, having almost zero days off and realizing that the eternal to-do list will never get done unless I do it. I can safely say that the saying should read “find what you love and you’ll work harder than you’ve ever have in your life but it will be worth it because it’ll feed you in a way that no other job ever has.”

Effort is important, valuable, and necessary. Effort without love, passion, fulfillment or satisfaction is ultimately empty. Yes, we live in a world where often to survive we bust our asses at jobs we don’t love. Yet there’s also something to be said for allowing ourselves to root our effort in something greater than simple exertion.

Ask yourself in the next few days “Where is my passion, NOW?” “Where is my satisfaction, NOW?””Where is my fulfillment, NOW?”

A curious thing begins to happen when you start to investigate the moment. Things begin to reveal themselves to you in a way that was previously hidden. Often the very thing you’re looking for has always been present. At first it may seem incremental, but if you’ve been in the desert for three days with no water, even a drop feels like paradise.

Continue to show up and exert your effort, but don’t forget the importance of seeking something greater and allowing it to reveal itself to you through deliberate inquiry.