July Word of the Month

Effort

1: conscious exertion of power : hard work

2: a serious attempt : TRY

3: something produced by exertion or trying

4: the total work done to achieve a particular end

My July word of the Month is EFFORT.

If I want to be better,all it takes is EFFORT.

I'm not talking about a huge ,move mountain type of EFFORT.

More like a "how about a little bit of EFFORT",EFFORT.

Over the last few months it has become way to easy to not pt in the EFFORT.

In the early days of the quarantine, when the grocery stores and markets were a madhouse and those of us over 65 were dissuaded from participating in the world at large,, others shopped for me. That was easy.

It also contribute the beginning of this lazy stage of my life.

If you haven't heard me mention this in the past, I hate wearing masks.

I know,shocking revelation huh!

So when someone else offered to do things for me,yep,you got it,more lazy.

Lazy started to creep into every aspect of my life.

All of my good habits quickly fell to the ayside,without me really being all that aware of just how far off track I was going.

And all of this is due to a lack of EFFORT on my part.

My aha moment just now was maybe it's time for me to re-read The Compound Effect" by Darren Hardy.

My current state of affairs is a direct result of the compound effect of lazy choices .

I didn't go on a binge of any sort.

I just made easy small choices in the wrong direction which day after day,week after week and now month after month , have taken me way off course.

There is no doubling back.

I don't have a magic transporter that would allow me to push a button and poof, zoom me back to a better place. The only way back is to make a conscientious choice to make an EFFORT .

When I finish writing, instead of opening Youtube or Facebook on my computer, get off my ass and walk around a bit.

Garbage can getting a bit full?

Instead of trying to squeeze more in, get off my ass and go get empty into the trash.

Need something from the store?

Go get it (even if it means putting on that stupid mask for 10 minutes).

As I sit here in my family room,I can see how a lack of EFFORT can have a huge effect on the status quo.

Pick up the throw pillow that fell on the floor,even though it's just as easy to walk past it.

Make a pile of yesterday's and the day before's and the day before that's newspaper. Even better, tak them all,puthem in a bag and take them to the recycling center.

A little EFFORT makes a huge difference.

Just that simple.

And if you do it enough, it actually becomes a habit,even EFFORTLESS.

Shabbat Shalom!