Efforts are multi-faceted, meaning they could be viewed in different dimensions. These include but are not limited to physical strength, mental capacity, time, emotions, etc.
Efforts could be quantified as excess, little, or appropriate. Efforts in this manner could be qualified as appropriate or inappropriate.
The intent of every effort is to obtain a result, which could be positive (in most circumstances) or negative (on rare occasions). Some efforts can be geared towards having a bad outcome, such as when armed robbers make efforts to harm innocent citizens. However, most often, efforts are targeted for positive results.
Ever heard of wasted efforts or work done at zero? This happens when efforts are not directional. Speed was differentiated from velocity in regards to its lack of direction, meaning an object without direction lacked velocity.
I will not deny that some things come to us by sheer luck, miracle, coincidence, or inheritance. These are things that efforts do not necessarily buy, but, in a simple term, come to us on a platter of gold. Yet, we can tag those things as achievements since they belong to us. Nonetheless, most things acquired require significant effort, no matter how minimal they may look. And humanity generally puts in a lot of effort to achieve the small and big things of life.
My early childhood was filled with a lot of playfulness. This earned me my first class repeat in life. My reception class had to be repeated as mandated by my father, even though I had the opportunity to promote on probation. I really felt terrible and sober after that incident, and my level of playfulness reduced a little. This indicated that I was at the bottom of my class academically. The struggle continued, and I seemed not to be making headway in my academics. In my primary two, a student replied, safe-safer-safest (I really can’t remember what was asked; this is only an illustration), and when I was asked for my answer, I replied with a good-gooder-goodest (😂): that was absurd, right?
My dad realized I needed extra efforts to meet up with my classmates, and he was kind enough to engage a private tutor for me (the funny thing was that I came across my tutor last year when he came to do a registration in my office), which improved my academics significantly. There were days I wanted to avoid the lesson period totally; on one occasion, I told him I was sick, and he told me to still sit and get tutored. He saw through my lie and told me that "was" was in the past, which meant I was fine already. There was the day I was asked to complete a statement like, "Let sleeping dogs...." Well, I was in primary five or six, and my answer was, "SLEEP" (😂) The good part of it is that, in my national common entrance examination, I came second in Kwara State with a score of 585, being outrun by another who scored 586. I was the pride of my family and that of the school.
Medical school is a different war zone where your scores could be lower than your shoe sizes. Some things just would not stick to the brain, and even when you thought you'd mastered something, the dimension of the questions in the examination hall would dazzle you and make you feel much more unprepared for the career. At some points, I stopped being moved by those scores; I survived the depression of not having good results for my many efforts and lived in the positive euphoria of letting life have its course. Well, I had a repeat in medical school, not because I was not brilliant on average but perhaps due to some other logistics. The good part was that, eventually, I graduated as I hoped.
Some lessons to note:
A. Not every result requires effort such as some achievements as a result of sheer luck or inheritance.
B. Not all results are commensurate with the efforts put in.
C. Most things in life require effort, no matter how little.
D. Efforts could come in the form of mental and time commitments.
E. Efforts need to be channeled in the right direction to avoid getting zero work done.
F. Efforts need to be intensified where the need arises.
Sometimes, we need to reduce our efforts to re-strategize for a better result.
Thank you for reading. I would love to have your comments and contributions. 🤗