It’s easy to be fooled into believing that effort is the most important variable to our success. If we simply work harder/smarter/more strategically, we will be more successful. The messages are all around us.
“There is no substitute for hard work.”
“You need to give 110% effort!”
“No pain, no gain.”
Because of this cultural belief, we tend find ourselves reacting and responding to our workloads with maximum effort. We go overboard. We sprint as fast as we can. We work extra-long hours. We send text messages after hours to our colleagues. We call our colleagues beyond normal working hours. We skip meals (or eat poorly) We put off sleep and breaks. All to focus on “giving the effort needed to get the job done well.”
This “mad-dash, all-in,” activity causes us to spend days recuperating and catching up from a life turned over because of a work deadline or goal. And, after we recover, we find ourselves repeating the same dubious cycle.
Meanwhile, the amount of effort we give is not the success variable that matters most.
Instead, the variable that creates the most long-term success is consistency.
Work on the project, the process, the initiative a little at a time.
Make a few outreach calls to donors each day. Don’t plan to make 35 in a single 4 hour block one afternoon – it won’t happen.
Write the introductory paragraph of that annual giving direct mail letter one day and the paragraph about mission-impact another day. Don’t plan to get the entire letter completed and the insert designed in two days – it won’t happen.
Start playing with the design of the next magazine cover when you have a few minutes at the end of a Friday. And, then, come back to it next week. Don’t plan to have a single, marathon meeting to decide the cover, the theme, the stories, and each spread – it won’t happen.
Over the long-term, giving 70% to 80% effort and showing up consistently will produce far more success than giving 110% effort in fits and starts.
Success is far less about giving effort until its painful and far more about showing up until you persevere.
