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.
