Note to self:
Effort means work …
By Bernadette Kathryn, LMT, IHLC
All growth depends upon activity.
There is no development physically or intellectually
without effort, and effort means work.
~ Calvin Coolidge
Effort means work
Effort means work ~ how does that statement strike you? Does it evoke a feeling of excitement or trepidation? Do you feel like you already work so much, you don’t want to take on any more obligations? I suspect that is how a lot of people feel about taking care of their bodies. Cooking requires so much work, I don’t have time for all that chopping and cooking. Exercise doesn’t really fit into my schedule, I am tapped out. I don’t have time to clean the closets, they are such a mess and what’s the point, nobody around here cares… the list goes on.
I hear it a lot ~ there are as many good reasons for not taking care of personal business as there are good people excusing themselves from the tasks. It’s true, we live in a time in life where we are all bogged down with too much, too much to do, too much info streaming all the time, too much stuff and too many obligations. We have become enamored with the idea of being socially connected to everyone and everything through our wireless capabilities and actually become less and less truly connected. We are master consumers and overflowing with stuff, stuff that we often don’t even like or use. We have lost our connection to our true inner voice and we are like children in candy stores, we want everything because it’s there and not exercising discretion or discipline in consideration of our SMART GOALS. How can we get back to what’s truly important in our personal growth to support our happiness?
I am guilty, I love to watch TV. I grew up with a single mom as a latchkey kid and TV was often our babysitter. I am sure she was tired of working several jobs to support us without the financial support of our father, it was hard. I know she did her best and truthfully did an amazing job with the little resources that she had. We always had good food, clean clothes, went to school and lived in a clean, safe home. When I look back on it and think of myself in that position, I cannot even imagine how hard that must have been for her to manage.
Working together
Mom was able to teach us to work together as a family to make it all happen. We all had household chores and were expected to help out, do our homework, get good grades and keep the house neat and tidy. While that experience must have been very challenging for mom, it served as a good foundation for me and my brothers. We learned to cook, clean and be responsible as a family. Working together as a family helped to bond us, gave us a sense of responsibility in our own lives and helped us grown into responsible adults.
The effort means work was directly related to working together and growing as a family, learning to be happy with what we had. The activity of growing from children into young adults with a strong sense of family and responsibility was a gift. The gift of learning to enjoy the simple pleasures in life, to invest in our family unit with pride in our home, pride in our efforts to learn and grow, pride in our family meals together. When we are engaged in learning something new, it takes time and effort means work and that can be a very exciting opportunity to bring another experience of happiness into our lives.
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