You never going to believe what I’m about to confess.
Back in college (the number of years is really not important), my degree required a foreign language and I decided that I needed to take a language that was a bit different, because hey I wanted to be different. So, I ended up choosing Russian. Yep, I know what you are probably thinking…. what the heck was I thinking, right?! Well, truthfully, I was thinking… I wanted to stand apart. My degree was focusing on the Middle East and Northern Africa, so Russian, instead of Arabic, was in my mind the logical choice especially since it was the late 80’s (okay so you can probably figure out the # of years now).
I struggled through the entire two years of required classes and various teachers (another story). It was hard and exhausting. I struggled every single semester. Fast forward to today and sadly I can only remember how to say “Hello, how are you?”. Why you ask… plain and simple, I put in only enough required effort to pass the class, and then only barely.
“No matter what your ability is, effort is what ignites that ability and turns it into accomplishment.”
– Carol Dweck, author “Mindset: The New Psychology of Success”
Why am I telling you this now? Recently, I was interviewing a guest for a podcast and I found out he also spoke Russian. His was a bit more fluent, well a lot more fluent actually as it was his native language. In the course of the conversation, I tried out my one liner and he was impressed as much as he could be, because let’s face it, I only had one line and nothing to back that up. Later in the day, I was reflecting back on our conversation and I realized again that I regretted not putting in more effort in those 2 years of classes. And, I also regretted not keeping up with what I had actually learned.
See… success, any real success requires effort, continuous effort, over a period of time.
Continuous effort helps…
- You get better at a skill by practicing it over a period of time.
- You reach a goal by working hard over a period of time.
People with fixed mindsets don’t see effort as a viable option, especially since failure in their minds is to be avoided at all costs. However, the actual key is understanding that effort helps you get over that hill and past that little voice inside you that is so fixated on your imminent failure. Effort can silence that inner voice that tells you that you will always fail, that all your efforts to be better are useless.
>>Effort can also show people how much passion you have for your job, career or your business.<<
What have you done lately that you could have put more effort in to it? It is never too late, to try again. Anything worth having, any success, is worth the effort every single time.
Sandy Adams 