Putting in more effort

“Always make a total effort, even when the odds are against you.”

- Arnold Palmer

Feeling hopeless or helpless can become the ultimate deterrent while making personal and professional pursuits. Setbacks and roadblocks can test us to determine how committed we are to whatever it is we are pursuing. We decide whether or not to keep plugging away or abandon our plans altogether. If we decide to keep going, it’s imperative to our odds of success to not only stay committed to our pursuit, but to become fully invested if it’s something we choose to keep pursuing.

It makes sense. What is the point of pursuing something only to put forth a half-hearted and half-assed attempt to achieving that goal? We can come up with half-hearted and half-assed excuses like lack of finances, resources and time. Quite often, though, lack of motivation, faith or willpower to follow through on our plans is what can derail them for good. We may lose sight of why we even started a particular pursuit in the first place. Maybe we did not want it bad enough. That should be our first question when we find ourselves making excuses or making a half-hearted effort. How bad do I want it?

Photo by John Gibbons on Unsplash

To not want something bad enough is where the half-hearted and half-assed efforts come from. What we end up finding out is we get half-assed returns on our efforts. If we only…