Sometimes, it feels like I’m going nowhere fast. I’ve been working on a big project for months. It feels like I’ve been at it forever and I don’t appear any closer to its conclusion.
I find myself discouraged and wanting to quit.
“What’s the use?” I find myself lamenting. “Why put in any more effort?”
I know the answer, of course. I know why it’s important to complete the work. I also know I’m using “selective amnesia” to avoid taking responsibility should I choose to give up. Does that ever happen to you?
Today I decided to take a closer look at “effort,” seeking a little inspiration. Here are ten thoughts I found from people I admire. Putting the list together was surprisingly helpful to get myself back to the task at hand.
Maybe it will do the same for you.
“Continuous effort – not strength or intelligence – is the key to unlocking our potential.” Winston Churchill.
“Effort only fully releases its reward after a person refuses to quit.” Napoleon Hill
“Leaders are made, they are not born. They are made by hard effort, which is the price which all of us must pay to achieve any goal that is worthwhile.” Vince Lombardi
“Enthusiasm is the mother of effort, and without it nothing great was ever achieved.” Ralph Waldo Emerson
“A garden requires patient labor and attention. Plants do not grow merely to satisfy ambitions or to fulfill good intentions. They thrive because someone expended effort on them.” Liberty Hyde Bailey
“Satisfaction lies in the effort, not in the attainment, full effort is full victory.” Mahatma Ghandi
“Success is peace of mind, which is a direct result of self-satisfaction in knowing you made the effort o become the best of which you are capable.” John Wooden
“Freedom from effort in the present merely means that there has been effort stored up in the past.” Theodore Rossevelt
“You find that you have peace of mind and can enjoy yourself, get more sleep, and rest when you know that it was a one hundred percent effort that you gave – win or lose.” Gordie Howe
This article is part of a series of 26 posts for the month of April called “Blogging from A to Z,” an idea first suggested by Arlee Bird of Tossing It Out.
