“Effort – a vigorous or determined attempt; strenuous physical or mental exertion”
Effort seems to be a scary and immeasurable word. We all know what it means to some degree, however, we all have different levels of effort. The mysteriousness of effort is what is attractive about it. How do we know if we’re giving maximal effort towards something?
I recommend to write down what it is you are trying to accomplish presently and what your original motives were going in, and where those have gotten you. While being COMPLETELY honest with yourself, evaluate your effort. No cheating, be honest for this is for your eyes only for self reflection.
Next, make a whole new list of what you think you can improve on. Write down your new goals, even if a few are the same, and then start to identify those factors in your life that have been causing you to come up short.
Here’s an example:
Maybe your goal is you want to get in shape and start eating better. A quick assessment would show that you watch 2-4 hours of TV every night, followed by surfing the internet and playing games on your phone. What’s preventing you from exercising and eating better? TV, which then causes you to stay up late, surf the web, get on social media, get up late, go to work, and as a result have no time in between. Some people consider that a hard, busy life. A routine dose of maximal effort.
If those are your priorities, then yes, those two things, work and TV, take up ALL of your time, leaving you no time for anything else. So your time to YOU seems extremely limited for anything else. What happens when you take those countless, wasted hours of television out of your daily routine? You have an hour for the gym, an hour to cook your dinner AND lunch for the next day, and time for extra sleep. With that extra sleep, you can now get up earlier, have some personal devotion time, eat breakfast, and feel much more accomplished and fulfilled going into your day. Not to mention you will be SO MUCH more productive.
“Success is the sum of small efforts, repeated day in and day out.”
The 3 phases of fitness (physical fitness, nutrition, and mental health) must have complete effort. If you lack effort, then 
don’t expect any effort in return from your body, mind, or soul. These 3 phases of fitness work in tandem with one another to bring a complete balance to your life. If you short-change one, in time, you short-change them all. If you don’t eat or exercise correctly, don’t expect your body to produce results. If after a hard day at work, you decide to come home and “shut your mind off” by watching mindless TV and eating “garbage,” while staying up past unreasonable hours, don’t expect your mind to have the alertness to function the next day.
When it comes to your mental health, if we don’t make that time to reflect, pray, “sharpen the saw” – whatever it may be, then don’t expect to feel fulfillment without an internal love of yourself and something greater.
We put ourselves in these situations, constantly, stating that we don’t like the way we look, feel, or where we’re at in life. Yet, we go through the same motions and do the same negative things on a regular basis, with the same mediocre and lethargic effort. Seek out guidance and advice, educate yourself, and find a healthy circle of influence to keep you in-tune with your goals.
“So make every effort to apply the benefits of these promises to your life. Then your faith will produce a life of moral excellence. A life of moral excellence leads to knowing God better. Knowing God leads to self-control. Self-control leads to patient endurance, and patient endurance leads to godliness. Godliness leads to love for other Christians, and finally you will grow to have genuine love for everyone.”
2 Peter 1:5-7
Fouard Fitness 