“The difference between try and triumph is the umph”. Recently this has become one of my favourite quotes and I have derived a lot of meaning from it as of lately. What is the “umph”? Using another word, we call this “effort”.
Effort is often under-estimated or overlooked, but as this quote illustrates and I firmly believe, it is, in fact, essential for success.
What is effort? Effort is defined as “the physical or mental activity needed to achieve something”. Achieving our goals is not always going to come easily. In fact, the more ambitious the goal or the greater the challenge, the more effort you will need to summon to achieve it. Champions are those who consistently give focused and solid effort every single day in pursuit of their goals, and this is how they can accomplish incredible and even unbelievable things. It will be tough sometimes, and you will get uncomfortable but that is where effort is the most essential and it’s those times that signal significant changes are occurring in your personal growth and that you are progressing on your course to realize your goals and aspirations. Effort has its roots in energy. The more energy you put into what you do, the better the results will be for you. Everything is energy and energy cannot be created or destroyed–rather it transforms from one form to another. And it all comes back to what you choose to do with your energy.
How you choose to use and channel your energy is how you create your own destiny. Our effort is the one constant thing over which we all have control and ownership. Once you realize this, you can start to MO’ve forward and build MO’mentum you can build behind your efforts and that transformation.
So, you may wonder how we improve our physical and mental energies to strengthen our efforts to reach our goals.
After dedicating almost four decades to my work in the health and fitness industry where I have held several top executive roles with the country’s leading health and fitness companies, I have learned a thing or two about effort and how to summon it. I appreciate the importance of effort and how it vital it is to success and which is why I have three key insights and important personal practice recommendations I want to share with you to help you develop both the physical and mental effort you need to MO’ve you forward to personal triumph in reaching your goals, regardless of whatever life circumstances come your way.
Meditation
Meditation is a practice that helps calm your mind to focus your energy and attention. Developing a meditation practice will take some time but it will help you on so many levels from calming your mind, reducing stress and anxiety to helping you show up as the fullest version of yourself able to give your best effort to any task.
As a leader, I know the importance of cultivating the proper mindset for approaching goals, overcoming challenges and being my best self. Meditation is one of my foundational life and leadership habits. I know the importance of setting aside time in my day for my meditation practice to get my mind right. It has made a difference in the effort I can invest in my work and in pursuit of my goals.
To support others, I created an album of meditations for leaders with my close friend and personal meditation coach Angela Kontgen. Click here for more information on this album.
Power Posing
Our physical body affects our mind, mind influences our behavior and behavior impacts our outcomes. Think about a time when you felt really confident. Your body language was probably more open, tall, strong, and you felt more energized. Our posture communicates how our bodies are feeling (about one’s self, the environment and its people) and our posture has a great impact on our energy levels and the amount of effort we can put forth. And this is how the science and practice of Power Posing becomes an important tool.
Power Posing is a practise and method for naturally improving your posture, that will energize and enhance your confidence. There are three Power Poses–“Superhero”, “Strong” and “Victory”. I’ve always said you can never underestimate the power of your posture. Powering up your posture has such a positive effect on both your physician and mental energy and confidence
level It’s a simple practice that will hardly take any time out of your day but has tremendous potential to influence the energy and effort you can put into your day. Honestly, you can’t help but feel triumphant when doing “Victory” Pose!
Watch Amy Cuddy’s TedX Talk to learn more on Power Posing here.
Also, check out my FREE Power of Connection 28 Day Challenge, which incorporates Power Posing!
MO’ve Your Body
MO’ving your body (in other words exercising) is so important for both physical and mental health, well-being and performance. Regular physical activity is one of the best ways to elevate your energy levels and give you that physical and mental drive to put greater effort into your endeavours!
MO’vement is part of my DNA and it has served me in life since the day I was born thus I feel strongly about the importance of it and finding ways to MO’ve every day. It’s something I consider vital. This is also why I am inspired and MO’tivated by helping others find the same joy for living through MO’ving their body, mind and soul.
To help you get and keep MO’ving, I created four different 20-minute workouts you can do from home. You can find these workouts on my website homepage or by clicking here.
So how will you MO’ve forward today? What effort can you bring to going after your goals and how can you support and sustain the energies needed behind that effort?
