How often would you give yourself a grade of an A for effort?

Effort towards what?

Good question.

What area of your life do you want to change or improve?

One definition of the word effort is the conscious exertion of power.

Conscious exertion.

Conscious exertion means you think about it, and then you apply yourself. It doesn’t mean that you muddle your way through another day, hoping things will be different.

Of course, no one expects you to exert conscious effort all the time because that would be exhausting both mentally and physically. But when needed, you sprint, aka apply max effort, then rest and repeat as necessary.

Applying effort is more about building an identity than results. While results are important, there are times when they are out of your control. But being the kind of person that can harness your own energy and point it in a direction for a specific amount of time is a skill you can use throughout your life.

Now there’s the question of grading your effort. The bad and good news about grading your effort is that it’s internal to you. So, only you will know if you’ve applied your best effort, and if you don’t, there’s no one to fool but yourself. And that’s very important to know because ultimately, life is not about how others perceive you but how you feel about yourself.

So, the next time you’re considering changing or improving an area of your life, think about how much effort you’re willing to exert. Hopefully, at the end of the sprint, you’ll be able to look back and see that you deserve an A for the effort you applied.

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