I hear all the time how much effort you put into something affects how much you get out of it. Although there are other factors that can affect the outcomes, effort is an important part that cannot be overlooked.
Since I am a teacher, I will start with school. Teachers and parents can work until they are blue in the face trying to help a child learn, but unless the student is putting in effort, improvement will not happen. Certainly there are other factors that can affect performance besides effort, such as the quality of the instruction, materials used, readiness of the student, emotional and social difficulties, and the potential of the student. But putting all these things aside, if there is no effort, there will be no advancement. All we can ask for is that students truly put in their best effort.
The word fairness sometimes crops up around the word effort. “It’s not fair that “Bob” doesn’t have to study at all and he always gets an A.” … “It’s not fair that I put in 3 times more time studying for a test than everyone else does, yet I still get the lowest grade.” … “I study just as hard as Mary yet she always gets better grades than me.” Obviously you can see the holes in these sample quotes, so you have to be wary of using the words fairness and effort together. Besides, who said life was fair?
Employment is another area where effort plays an important role in holding a job and also in advancing. Hand-in-hand with effort comes performance. Sometimes you are lucky and hit your goal without hard work, but that is the exception and not the rule. Those who work hard and put in top-notch effort all the time generally succeed in the working world. Disclaimer: Since we are currently in a recession, there may be some of you who were laid off due to the economy and not due to a lack of effort. Many factors are used in the rationale of a company’s decisions who to let go. Sometimes their decisions may seem fair and sometimes not. But again, who said life is fair?
It takes effort to make friends and also to keep the friendships alive and healthy. Relationships take work, which requires effort. Taking a phone call when you don’t feel like talking, going out when you are tired, or setting up a long overdue get-together are all examples of actions that require effort on your part. And let me say here that friendships are a two-way matter. Nothing deteriorates faster or with more of a let down than when the amount of time and effort you put into a friendship is not reciprocated equally.
We all know someone who is an amazing shopper. She always seems to find the best sales, knows where to go for the best quality items, and seems to know every store that is out there. She knows where to find the perfect gift for that person who has everything, or where to shop to put together an awesome outfit. This information does not come magically to her in her sleep. It takes effort on her part to know this information. It could be that it interests her and is fun for her to ‘know’ all this. No one said the effort has to be hard or daunting. As a matter of fact, many times it is fun and exciting.
In addition to shopping, other hobbies and sports require effort if you are hoping to be any good at them. Photography, painting, playing an instrument, assembling collections, dancing, or participating in any sport are all examples of activities where effort is needed to progress. Although there are a few natural-born artists/musicians/athletes, the majority of us need to put in a great deal of effort, time, and hard work to advance.
As the president of a non-profit organization for the last five years, I can tell you first hand how difficult fund-raising is. Thinking up creative ideas, recruiting ample volunteers, and providing what potential attendees want are some of the primary basics of fund-raising. But the effort of the volunteers can make or break the success of your event. They say they will do something, but have some excuse why it didn't happen. They may procrastinate so long that the opportunity of their task has passed. They produce 10% of what everyone's expectations were of their assigned task. Other aspects can also squelch the fund-raising success, but this article is focusing on the effects of effort or a lack thereof.
I will end today at my rehabilitation facility. When I am in the physical therapy sessions I put forth 110% effort and I see those around me also putting forth the effort that they can. The variable part of successful physical therapy comes during the ‘off time’. We have therapy sessions twice a day on Monday through Friday, once on Saturday, and none on Sunday. We are ‘supposed to’ do exercises in our room every day, with more on Saturdays and a lot more on Sundays. Those who put in this time and effort and do the work all the time when no one is looking will advance quicker in their rehabilitation. Those who don't, won’t.
I am the type who does the work ‘plus some’, and it has nothing to do with anyone besides me keeping track. Certainly no one is watching me in my room checking off my exercises on a chart. I show up early for my physical therapy sessions to warm up and stay late to ice my knee longer. If I am in too much pain, which was the case more than once, I give my full effort and do what I can. I don’t beat myself up over the fact that I didn’t do what the therapist was hoping I could do, because I didn’t stop out of laziness. I did what I could and that is all anyone can ask for...your full effort. Many patients who don’t do the extra exercises might be avoiding them because of the pain they produce or of the effort that it will take to get to that pain. Without someone there pushing them, the work is just too daunting.
I am hoping for full use of my right knee in a few months. I didn’t go through all this pain, inconvenience, loss of work time, and expense for mediocre results. I know my effort will pay off. That’s true for most things in life: How much effort you put into something affects how much you get out of it.
I'd love to read My Two Cents: Motivation. I love what you have to say on the effectiveness of effort toward greater outcome, and would be interested in knowing what you think fuels this effort. What is motivation, where does it come from, and is its importance as significant as effort itself. I have many of my own thoughts on the matter, and so strongly agree with yours, it would be very interesting to see what you have to say about motivation! On another note, feel better!
ReplyDeleteA goal or desired outcome is what fuels motivation. I really see effort and motivation as working hand in hand. When we are motivated, we put in the effort needed to achieve these goals. We see positive results and that reinforces and fuels more self-motivation and effort. Likewise, when we put in effort, we are motivated, HOWEVER, that motivation is most effective and permanent when it is internal. For example, if a parent ‘forces’ or ‘threatens’ a child to put in more effort to get better grades, this is the parent’s goal, not the child’s. Therefore, it may yield positive results in the short term. If effort is put in, the student will see the positive effects of their effort. Then one of two things might happen: 1) The effort will become internal (self-motivation) or 2) Since the effort was not self-induced, it will eventually stop even if the better grades were obtained. This is because it was the parent, not the child, who wanted the good grades. What are some of your thoughts?
ReplyDeleteMotivation, I believe, is the sole catalyst of effort. What becomes variable are the levels of motivation itself. It seems that motivation is incredibly dependent on the outcomes that are to be achieved through effort. The magnitude, longevity, and importance (importance being determined by a person's core principles and character), of the perceived outcome are what most significantly affect someone's level of motivation (and thus, their effort). A perfect exposition of such are today's students. The amount of effort they put in stems directly from the amount of motivation they have, which subsequently is established by how significant they deem the outcomes to be. A student who places high value into long term success, of course, will achieve the highest grades. Conversely (and unfortunately the more frequent of cases), the student who can not see the long term effects and who does not hold such integrity will not be as motivated. Or, perhaps a simpler example- if someone can walk two feet to get a cheeseburger, they will be very inclined to do so. On the other hand, if they have to go four miles to attain the ingredients with which they can cook one up themselves... well you see where that's going. Likewise, the parent, who tries to bestow their child with the principles that, perhaps with experience, have learned to be most efficacious, will make an effort themselves to motivate their child. As you have stated, however, such force does not necessarily encourage the internal motivation needed. I agree very much that motivation must be internal, else, to call it motivation would perhaps be entirely inaccurate. Personally, I admire the effort, and immense motivation you have toward recovering. The reward itself is certainly not immediate, and the means by which to achieve it are not easy, but your motivation is powerful and determined. Keep it up :D
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