Your Full Effort

"What would this look like if I gave it my full effort?" - This was the question that Blake Burge posed in his recent newsletter Wise Words that really got me thinking.

Most times we give our relationships, work and ourselves less than half the effort we could have given it for various reasons. Our ideas about the world, our experiences in the past, our insecurities and everything else that takes us away from the present moment stop us from giving life our full effort.

Pick any one thing right now - a project at work, a difficult conversation or a close relationship and imaging giving your full effort. Picture clearly what full effort looks like physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually. Now think about what is stopping you from doing that...and see if you can identify small shifts that you can make to move towards full effort. Blake Burge talks about assessing yourself and committing to those "little acts...that compound into great ones".

This does not mean that we run ourselves ragged attempting to attain perfection. "Full effort" can mean different things in different contexts and can also include, first of all, the action of choosing what we want to give our full effort to. It means taking full responsibility to be fully present to our choices, options and ways of being and choosing mindfully and consciously. It also means being honest and gentle with ourselves at times for not giving our full effort as well.

Go ahead and try it...what would_______________ look like if I gave it my full effort? Like a child in a play ground, what would I look like if I took that risk and just tried?