It's All About Effort
Are you giving it your all? Maybe struggling to get started? Find out where you may be getting it wrong.
These days it seems like there are fewer and fewer people around that are willing to put in the effort. Everyone wants to have everything without lifting a finger. Whether that is because they have tried hard for a long time and seen no results or because they are unmotivated, the result is the same. Unless you are very lucky, no effort means no results. If you find yourself struggling to get your mind in the right place to start kicking things off, maybe you need a different perspective.
Let’s have a look at why effort appears to be such a problem for so many of us and break down exactly what it is into its constituent parts. By the end, hopefully you have gained some insight into how I view effort and how to apply these concepts to your everyday life to produce the results you are looking for.
CAUSE AND EFFECT
The problem with how we think about effort is that we tend to think of effort and results interchangeably. We make the assumption that the result was a product of high effort. For example, if a YouTuber releases 2 videos, one with 1M views and the other with 100k, the assumption will be that the higher view count = more effort. While you understand that there are other factors at play (luck, etc), in general, your mind tells you high effort → better results.
But remember that correlation is not equal to causation. Keeping everything equal, good results are produced by good work, not good effort. This distinction is important because many people get discouraged when they feel like the effort is there but they aren’t seeing the results, eventually leading to them giving up. If this cycle is repeated enough times, people get so defeated that they don’t even bother trying because they have already convinced themselves the result will be disappointing. How many times have you heard friends or family saying things like “Why bother?” “There’s no point” “It wouldn’t change anything anyway”
Here’s the thing you need to remember. These types of results are heavily impacted by powers outside of your control. Effort is not. You have full control over the amount of effort you exert. Start making your goals about effort rather than results and you will lead a more fulfilled life. If you are trying to start a YouTube channel, instead of aiming to produce videos that go viral with millions of views, you should aim to just produce videos. It takes a lot of work to create content, don’t invalidate your effort just because you aren’t getting the views.
So, while effort doesn’t guarantee results, it is a prerequisite. The longer you can maintain high levels of effort and produce high-quality work, the higher your chance of long-term success. With that out of the way, let’s look at exactly what effort is and how you can increase it.
WHAT IS EFFORT?
Effort is the amount of energy required to produce ‘work’. Work can be anything; running 5km, cooking a meal, working on a business plan, planning a date. However, effort is?subjective.?The same result can take wildly different degrees of effort depending on the person.
Eg; a marathon runner can run 20km with little effort, while someone that hasn’t run in years would take an astronomical amount of effort to run the same distance.
So how do we calculate the amount of energy expended? Effort is the product of intensity?and?quantity?plus?the amount of mental friction overcome. Let’s break it down.
EFFORT DURING THE ACTIVITY
INTENSITY
The amount of physical and mental power you exert during the activity is one factor in calculating effort. If John goes to the gym and does a light stroll on the treadmill, this is significantly less difficult than if Bill is doing sprint interval training.
Similarly, if John goes to work on auto-pilot, doing a repetitive task over and over again, this does not require much intensity. Bill on the other hand may be working in a fast-paced environment requiring him to be using his brain for 6 hours a day.
Don’t fool yourself into thinking you are putting in a lot of effort just because you are grinding 12-hour work days or spending 3 hours at the gym.
The level of intensity you can push yourself to is largely a question of mental fortitude. The higher the intensity, the better mental fortitude you need to endure the pain.
You can improve your mental fortitude over time. If you frequently subject yourself to high levels of discomfort, your mind will become accustomed to dealing with it.
However, depending on your goals, you may not need to increase intensity.
For example, you might start off running 10km in one hour. As you keep training your muscles adapt to the stimulus, making it easier on each subsequent run. This means that if you want to keep the same level of intensity, you need to run faster (increase pain). If your goal is to simply run 10km in one hour then your intensity will naturally decrease over time as you improve. Just note that this means your effort will also decrease (holding all things equal, if you decrease intensity you decrease total effort).
HOW TO INCREASE INTENSITY
Take your time and progressively increase your intensity over time. Everyone is super eager straight out of the gate, but this can hinder you long-term if you get ahead of yourself. There’s no reason to give yourself more reasons to stop (ie, it’s too hard). Start easy until your mind is resilient enough to handle the additional load.
QUANTITY
This component is pretty self-explanatory. At a given level of intensity, the more of something you do, the higher the effort you put in.
Holding everything equal:
???1 hour at the gym > 30 minutes at the gym
???10 hours working > 6 hours working
The biggest pitfall most fall into is thinking that effort scales linearly with quantity. Why? Because going through the motions is easy. Remember that high intensity means more pain and discomfort. Much easier to spend more time and tell yourself you are putting in the effort.?It may make you feel good but generally won’t produce good results due to the inverse nature of intensity and quantity.
INVERSE NATURE OF INTENSITY AND QUANTITY
The reason increasing quantity to infinity doesn’t increase effort to infinity is because it has an inverse relationship with intensity. This means that as you increase one the other decreases. The product of intensity and quantity would look something like this.
However, for most activities, the relationship between the two is not linear, which might result in different looking curves.
Note?that each activity?will have its own unique curve, with an ‘optimal’ intensity and quantity that produces the highest effort. But don’t worry about maximising effort – getting in the appropriate range is enough. Just be mindful that for most of what you do, going to the extremes of either one will greatly reduce effort.
EFFORT TO START THE ACTIVITY (MENTAL FRICTION)
When we try and?push something?in the physical world, it takes much more force to get the object moving than to keep it moving. This is because we have to overcome static friction which is keeping the object in place.
Our brains work in a similar way. We’ve all come home from work, sat down on the couch, and then found it incredibly hard to move ourselves off. But when we do manage to put our shoes on and get out the door, suddenly that run you were procrastinating isn’t so bad, in fact, it usually makes us feel pretty good.
So how do we reduce this friction? Just like static friction, you can either make the load lighter by reducing the weight or get extra pushing power, maybe by asking a friend to help.
领英推荐
LIGHTENING THE LOAD
In the physical world, to do this there’s really only one way. In your mind, there are plenty. Here a few:
HOW MUCH DO YOU LIKE IT?
The more you like something, the less mental friction you will have. It takes far less effort for someone who enjoys running to hit the road than someone who does not.
Picking things you like to do will greatly increase the chance of long-term success. If you like walking, walk. Don’t feel pressured into running or cycling because it’s the ‘best’ form of cardio.
HABITS
Humans are creatures of habit. The more a behaviour is ingrained, the harder it will be to break from it. You will naturally default to your usual habits because it is the most comfortable.
Use this to your advantage. The more you do something, the faster it becomes a habit. The faster it becomes a habit, the more comfortable you feel doing it, ie less mental friction.
ENVIRONMENT
We are pretty weak-willed. If there’s a tiny barrier blocking you from starting something, you will likely give in. It’s much harder to start work if your housemate is watching your favourite TV show.
Set yourself up for success by creating an environment that is conducive to your goals. Do this when you?feel good?and your willpower and motivation are high.?Exploit yourself when you are strong, that way when?your motivation is low, you may still pull through.
MAKE IT EASY
If you are dreading the size of the task, just make it smaller. 5km run sound like too big of a task? Tell yourself to just run around the block or down the street. Don’t want to do all the chores (laundry, dishes, vacuum, tidy up, clean bathroom)? Just pick one. Go load the dishwasher.
If you complete the smaller task and stop, great. Better than doing nothing. But there’s also a chance that once you get moving, your mindset changes and you can finish that 5km.
Don’t forget that once you overcome the mental friction to start the task, you automatically switch to the ‘effort during the activity’ component.?So anything that can get you moving is great!
MORE POWER
Just like asking for help with moving something heavy, we can use external factors to push us into action. Unless you have very good self-control, it’s best to ask someone to help here. Whether that be a partner, friend, or family. A good option is also to use a coach or mentor because they are more likely to stay objective and less likely to give in to your excuses.
INCENTIVES
Try this. Transfer a friend $1,000 and ask them not to give it back unless you prove you have finished <your workout, essay, book, etc> by a deadline.
See how motivated you become. Make sure you pick a number that is meaningful to you. Sending them $20 doesn’t count.
This doesn’t have to be a?financial incentive, but it has to be something that is outside of your direct control. For example, my partner had a trip with a friend planned and was procrastinating on some work she needed to get done. We agreed that if she didn’t finish it by a certain date I would cancel her trip. Guess who finished on time?
Or maybe if you have a dinner planned, give someone the phone numbers of the friends you’ll be going with and tell them to text them “I can’t come to dinner tonight because I didn’t do my laundry” if you don’t do your laundry. You’ll have clean clothes in no time.
DIRECTING EFFORT
Now that you know what effort is, you might be saying “I get started and put the time and energy in, why am I no closer to my goals?”. It might be because you are putting your effort in the wrong place. Remember, effort → work → results. So the type of work you produce determines what results you can expect.
Let’s look at some examples.
1. John wants to get a visible 6-pack. John does 5 ab workouts per week for 6 months. Still no abs. Why?
John has put in consistent effort over 6 months, producing a lot of work (workouts). However, getting visible abs is more about the body fat covering the muscles than working hard to get said muscles.
Where should he have put effort? Into his diet / cardio regimen.
2. Jane wants to improve her life. Jane reads 30 self-help books in a month. Nothing changes. Why?
Jane has read 30 books! Clearly she has put in a lot of effort. However, improving your life doesn’t come from reading lots of material. If you don’t stop and think and take time to absorb the content, nothing happens. It’s why many people believe that?self-help doesn’t work. All Jane has done in the last month is improve her reading skills. The goal of reading the book isn’t to finish the book, it’s to learn what the book has to say.
Both examples highlight a big issue. You often pick activities that are related to but don’t effectively produce the results you want. A lot of the time it’s because whatever you choose to do is the easier option. John might find it pretty easy to smash out a 10-15 minute ab workout, but eating less pizza, donuts and beer? Unthinkable. Likewise, how much harder is it for Jane to sit and really think about all the problems in her life than to mindlessly read words on a page?
It’s easy to see why this happens. It gives you bursts of dopamine when you finish these tasks. After they finish their workout or book they feel good about themselves. But sooner or later, the rush is gone and they are back to where they started.
So, before you start doing something, make sure it is actually effective in achieving what you want. Here’s a little tip. If you know there are different options that you could choose,?the one you want to do the least is probably going to be the most effective.?Don’t take the easy way out.
Are you great at creating content but can’t seem to grow your brand? Spend time learning the ins and outs of digital marketing rather than creating content.
Are you great at your job but find it difficult to progress in your career? Spend less time perfecting your work and more time networking.
Great at cutting costs but can’t seem to save any money? Put more effort into finding new ways to increase income rather than new ways to penny pinch.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
If you enjoyed this, please like and share this article. For more content, please visit my blog: https://erictangcoaching.com/blog/