One of my brilliant clients came up with the word “efforting.” She used it to describe times that she’s not in the flow of either her business or her personal life. It’s when she is slugging through the day and dreading tasks that she doesn’t feel connected with. I love the word and I completely get it. It’s when we are pushing ourselves to do things that we aren’t “feeling.” It’s the Have To not Want To list of life.
It’s too easy to get into the habit of efforting because we’ve labeled everything except vacation as a Have To. How can we drop the efforting for 2018 and make it a year of Want Tos? Can someone do the laundry for me? Buy my groceries? Complete the paperwork for my business? Anyone? Hmmm, I guess not. Since apparently I can’t give away my have to’s, what’s another alternative?
It seems that the only way to ultimately stop efforting is to turn everything into a Want To. How realistic is that? I’m not sure if it’s completely realistic, yet I think we can at least improve the ratio of Have Tos to Want Tos by changing how we look at everything. When I resist or dread that trip to the grocery store, I could look at it as an honor because I have the resources and time to buy groceries. Plus, I shouldn’t forget about the chocolate aisle.
As you move into 2018, ask yourself how you can turn your Have Tos into Want Tos. #happiness #stress #efforting #energy #motivation Click To TweetEfforting drains our energy, motivation, and joy for life. It’s normal to go there sometimes, but it’s even better when we turn efforting into flow and acceptance. So ask yourself, “Why have I turned this into an efforting issue and what can I do to shift my experience of it?” “What’s the benefit of this activity and how can I make it a Want To and not a Have To?” It’s fine if you reward yourself for motivation. Why not? Rewards make life more fun.
Let’s make 2018 our year of minimal efforting and maximal enjoying. Life is short. Why spend too much of it efforting? Save your energy for the fun and challenging efforts, not the ones that drain our energy and sap our fun.
Happy New Year to all of you wonderful people. Here’s to a fabulous 2018!