EFFORT: The One Thing You Can Always Bring

There are plenty of things in life you don't get to choose.

Your genetics.

The weather.

Traffic.

Whether your children decide 7:42am is the perfect time to tell you they need a costume for school.

But there is one thing you get a surprisingly large say in:

Your effort.

And I think we underestimate how powerful that is.

We spend a lot of time looking at outcomes.

How much did you lift?

How fast did you run?

How much weight did you lose?

Did you win?

Did you get the promotion?

But outcomes can be messy. Sometimes you do everything right and the result still doesn't go your way.

Effort is different.

Effort asks a much simpler question:

Did you apply yourself to what was in front of you?

Your brain likes this more than you might think.

Research into motivation shows that our brains are constantly weighing up a simple equation:

Is the reward worth the effort?

Brain systems involving dopamine play an important role in motivating us to expend effort in pursuit of something we value.

Even more interestingly, research suggests we can actually learn to place greater value on effort itself.

In other words, doing hard things can make us more willing to do hard things.

That's a pretty handy superpower.

We see it in the gym all the time.

Someone starts training and they can't do a chin-up.

They keep showing up.

One day they get one.

Then three.

Then five.

And something much bigger than their back muscles has changed.

They've collected evidence.

Evidence that when they apply themselves, things can change.

That's where confidence really comes from.

Not standing in front of the mirror shouting:"I AM A CHAMPION!"

Although I'm certainly not against it.

Confidence comes from being able to look backwards and say: "I've done difficult things before."

Effort doesn't guarantee the result.

And that's important.

You can train hard and still lose the race.

You can study hard and still get a question wrong.

You can give everything to something and still fall short.

But effort gives you something the result can't take away:

Growth.

You become stronger.

More skilled.

More resilient.

More experienced.

And perhaps most importantly, a little more willing to have another crack.

That's why at EQUIPT, we're interested in more than numbers on a barbell.

We're interested in people learning what happens when they apply themselves.

Because eventually the lesson travels outside the gym.

Into work.

Parenting.

Relationships.

Health.

Life.

So this week, don't ask: "Was I the best?"

Ask:"Did I give the best effort I had available today?"

Because you won't always control the result.

But you can keep bringing the effort.

And funny enough...

the results have a habit of following.