The Psychology of Effort
How to generate and maintain effort in your Fitness Journey
Truth be told, we are innately lazy creatures. We enjoy sitting around and eating to our heart’s content endlessly without regard of the ramifications on our health because your mind is wired for survival. So by idling all day, your body is at a safe place and doesn’t need to worry about your sake.
In other words, to sleep and eat is your default mode of survival. Even if you are out of shape, your mind doesn’t signal you to put that cookie down and start running. It will keep you at bay and let you gobble up all the cookie jar since if this behavior kept you alive till now, then why change it?
“If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” — The Mind.
Fixing anything requires effort and that effort stems from a desire or a goal. If you have a goal or an objective to be done during the day, you will muster some effort and energy to get up and get things done. Regardless of the goal, nothing will move you if there is no trigger to begin with.
The mind’s idea for survival and keeping you safe is setting you up to take the road sans the bumps and struggles. We all want the easy way to get things done so we can enjoy the rest of the day resting. And who doesn’t like to rest? Who doesn’t dream of having everything and doing nothing?
But doing nothing comes with a price. Your health will degenerate, your spirit will drop, and your life in general will lose its meaning. This can lead you to becoming nihilistic and resentful which can prompt you to take extreme measures like giving up the ghost or dying (that escalated quickly).
We keep hearing that older generations were much more energetic and driven. They were hard workers and find joy in getting stuff done and feeling good about themselves for accomplishing their duties in their workplace and enjoying their well deserved meals.
Work is all what they knew and this gave them a purpose in life. Nowadays, work is treated as some chore rather than something valuable and spiritually uplifting. You work because you have to not because you want to. And this will make you resist working and striving to become better.
And this resistance comes from a lack of direction, purpose, and orientation all of which resulted from the burgeoning of the technological advancement that pretty much made life easier than before. For any problem you are having, you’ll find a solution to it with a click of a button.
And what’s funny is that man went all the way to keep his mind’s default mode operational. That is he exerted effort so that mankind doesn’t have to go through the labor and toil in order to stay alive. The default survival mode is fascinating in how it manifests but it‘s a double edged sword.
Getting things done faster does save time and energy which is good only if you have something meaningful in your life that you want to work on without bothering yourself thinking about menial stuff. If you are reliant too much on quick fixes then most likely you will become lethargic.
And this current life is structured in a way that solutions are easy to find and work is much more streamlined which doesn’t require physical effort and this is where people find issues in setting up a good training habit.
Work efficiency has stifled physical capabilities.
Low physical movement and training exacerbates people’s health in the long run and feeds into the mind’s default mode for survival by making you not care about your body and gets you stuck in the eat and sleep cycle. Well, with enough awareness, you can reverse that trend.
“All big things come from small beginnings” — James Clear
How to do I generate more effort enough to set up a consistent training habit you might ask? Well it all starts by simply getting up and dropping that cookie jar. If you literally do that then this gives you another reason to exert more effort by cleaning up the mess you made.
Next, you go and find your old pair of sneakers, put them on, get out and just walk. Walking is better than sitting and a good way to get that ball rolling in terms of building an active lifestyle. Also, it’s a good way to build some momentum before you set on doing a sport that you enjoy.
Start with a 30–45 mins walk everyday. Also make the deliberate effort to do things the hard way. For example: take the stairs, park far, use the car less often, walk to the mall, …. When you do these, you will find yourself feeling better and less slothful and lazy.
In time you will get to like it and crave for more. When things become stale and boring, this where you up the ante and set up better habits. If you are serious about your health and wellbeing, you should consider choosing a sport that you enjoy doing.
Take your time in finding that sport, while in the mean time incorporating ways to move deliberately more. It all starts with simple and actionable steps and slowly you will progress as you become more adept at becoming more active.
That first step of getting up and dropping that cookie jar however came from an inner desire for change. Although change is something your mind doesn’t want, but consciously you saw the consequences of poor lifestyle habits and yearned for a radical transformation.
The mind doesn’t distinguish between good and bad habits, it knows that if you are alive regardless of the things you do, then you are OK. This happens unconsciously, but by becoming more aware through observation and reflection, you can amass enough data to make you reverse that bad trend.
Imagine yourself full of energy and vigor going through tasks that you thought were difficult before. Visualize being the go-getter that others aspire to be and being a beckon of light for those struggling to become active and healthy.
Think of how your life can be much easier if you are always deliberately taking steps to lead a zestful and lively existence, and making effort and hard work your mind’s default mode of operation. In other words, your survival depends on production and achievements.
How cool does that sound? At first it can be scary but if you deeply fathom the joy of effort through knowledge and first hand experience, you will come into contact with an insatiable urge to always be on your feet accomplishing things and this urge feels super good.
In the end, it all starts with awareness. With awareness, comes change and change begat effort. And effort lead to results which in turn lead to fulfillment and satisfaction. And this is what most of us strive to achieve.
The journey is long but the time is now to change. So get up and work!
Wish you Strength and Wisdom ✌️
