Productive Effort

Proverbs 14:23: “All hard work brings a profit, but mere talk leads only to poverty.”

(This is part 3 of a series of blogs focused on the “continue” phase of accomplishing goals using my P.E.A.C.E. acronym. For a more detailed explanation of P.E.A.C.E. see my blog for September 1, 2008)

The famous football coach and now T.V. analyst and motivational speaker, Lou Holtz once said; “When it’s all said and done, there is more said than done.”

As mentioned in an earlier post, there are 2 steps to achieving a goal…start and continue and the step all of us struggle with the most is continue.

Last week I talked about the importance of developing a prioritized Plan and submitting it to God on a daily basis. This week I will be discussing the importance Effort plays in executing the plan.

We all know that any type of success in life takes hard work and Effort, and if you are reading this blog you are probably a person who is trying to better yourself by whipping an addiction and/or creating a new healthy habit.

The longer I live the more I realize that it’s not just the “effort” in our work ethic that determines the fruits of our labor, but it is the quality of our effort. Quality effort requires the discipline to stay on task day after day and this takes the ability to avoid distractions.

One of the biggest distractions that often impedes our effort in continuing and accomplishing our goals is talk. I used to own a fitness center and the people that accomplished their fitness goals were the ones who came in and did their workout with very little conversation. They stayed on task and if they talked they were motivating their workout partner to go the extra mile. Let’s face it, talk is cheap.

The major difference between productive people and organizations and unproductive people and organizations is how much or how little they talk…about nonsense…about things. I’ve witnessed organizations having meetings prior to meetings and after meetings in order to make sure the meetings go/went well. I know people that take 10 minutes to explain a one sentence circumstance.

It is obviously much easier to talk than it is to do.

Years ago I was reading a book written by the sales guru Tom Hopkins and he wrote; “small minds and small people talk about things, average minds and average people complain about their circumstance and/or talk about other people, great minds and great people talk about dreams, ideas and concepts to improve themselves and/or the world they live in.”

Where are you today? Do you spend most of your time talking about “things” and other people? We all know talk is cheap and comforting, but we also need to remember and believe what Solomon says about talk in Proverb 14; talk impedes our ability to profit and will eventually lead to poverty of the mind, body and soul. Talk impedes our ability to put forth a quality effort.

Challenge yourself to limit your complaints as well as your talk about things and other people, and concentrate on conversing about ways to better yourself and the world. Productive effort equates into the continuation of the achievement of your goals.

P.E.A.C.E.

Jay@EagleLaunch.com

Leave a Reply