The Difference Between Effort and Struggle (Read Time: 2 min.)

In last night's Not Built to Be Broken teleseminar, I taught the difference between effort and struggle. If you'd like to listen to the MP3, sign up with your name and email address in the sign up box on this page.

But, I digress.

Do you realize how powerful your sense of struggle is?

We can talk all day about the differences between effort and struggle but if you don't really get how powerful a force struggle is in your life, if you don't recognize the myriad of limiting beliefs that come along with a scarcity mentality, you will never get very far with the concept of effort.

Many of us think we're driven, ambitious, and put forth alot of effort when all we're really doing is struggling and spinning our wheels. In order to move from effort to struggle, there are certain facts of life you need to incorporate into your daily habits:

1- Set stretch goals. Set goals that are just outside of your reach & stay focused on them until you achieve them.

2- Change your expectation source. Don't expect things to go wrong. Assume that things work out exactly the way they are supposed to.

3- Don't go it alone. Seek out expert advice in the forms of books, articles, news programs. You don't know everything. Pursue knowledge constantly.

4- Make your actions fun. Even when actions are hard, they can be fun so see your daily tasks as a part of the major motion picture called your life. It all counts. It's all good and everything conspires in your favor.

5- Take breaks. There's this tendency to 'plow' through, even when we're exhausted, tired, in the wrong frame of mind, etc. While it's important to do what you have to do even when you don't feel like it, it's also important to know when you've hit your limit and take a break. Even a 15 minute break can shift you out of struggle and back into effort.