Scripture
“Commit your way to the Lord and he will act” (Psalm 37:5)
Thought
The growth of an Oak tree takes a really long time.
The growth of a leader takes a really long time.
Even though we know deep down the development process takes time, and even though we likely apply patience and understanding toward other people’s development, we often are impatient and frustrated with the length of time it takes to develop ourselves. Or for our situations to develop in the way we want them to.
Knowing what you know about how long development takes. Would you say your level of effort is sustainable? Are your lifestyle rhythms not only sustainable but are they going to get the results you want?
Most leaders we know typically land in three varying levels of effort in their life.
Heroic Effort:
Most New Year’s resolutions fall into this category. Just a few months ago I bumped into my neighbor who was surprisingly on crutches. When I asked what happened, she answered that on New Year’s day she severely damaged tendons in her foot on the treadmill. The doctors indicated that because of her extended inactivity, her body did not respond well when she went too hard on the treadmill as a part of her New Year’s resolution on January 1st. She actually damaged her foot so bad it required major surgery and she is still recovering in late April.
This is “heroic effort.” It’s the idea that we can “get-after-it” to make up for long periods of putting off what we know we need to do.
Instead of sustainable, marginal gains we want to go for the big win. Heroic effort usually leads to all-nighters and cramming. Trying to catch up by partaking in periods of intense workouts or studying or working. Extreme diets in which we unnecessarily starve ourselves for periods of time. Staying up to do the work in the middle of the night or really early in the morning instead of developing repeatable time blocks for deep work. We might get a lot done with heroic effort, but it’s not sustainable. Also our motivation for this type of effort is often rooted in an unhealthy place.
Idle Effort:
This is the opposite of heroic effort. You may read the term and think it’s an oxymoron. How can someone exert effort and be idle at the same time? Idle effort is when we feel like we’re doing something but ultimately we’re doing actions that fail to amount to any meaningful progress. This would be like researching gym memberships versus actually being in the gym lifting a weight and stressing muscles. Researching and studying workout plans on our phones but not actually raising our heart rate or breaking a sweat. Researching prospects but not actually picking up the phone and calling one to set up a meeting to pitch the idea. When we complete this type of effort we can feel like we accomplished a lot, but the truth is we’re still idle. We did a lot of periphery effort but not a lot of real effort.
Instead of doing the exact thing we know we want to do, we think we need more time studying, researching, planning and preparing. And in doing all those things we think we’re making progress when actually progress requires us to actually do the thing we’re studying, researching, planning and preparing for. Idle effort can be one of the most significant forms of stalling or playing it safe because it actually looks like we’re “getting-after-it.” But deep down we know the studying needs to stop and the real effort needs to start.
Coherent Effort:
If we’re going to stay the course on our journey this is where we need to live. This is the type of consistent effort we are after. It is in a dosage that makes sense. It’s doable even on days when we don’t feel like it. Coherent effort typically seems underwhelming by itself, but stacked over six months it leads to great results. It’s often boring and it takes a lot of time to see the results of coherent effort. This might be reading for a mere twenty minutes a day. By itself, twenty minutes isn’t enough time to finish a book or possibly even one chapter of a book. But stacked over months it can lead to reading up to fifty books in a calendar year.
This type of effort supports the development lifestyle rhythms we want to see with the leaders we work with. Intentionality and purpose, but not at a dosage that leads to burnout or injury. Intentionality and purpose, not just talking a big game but actually doing the things we say we want to do.
There are no hacks to creating the lifestyle rhythms required to develop in our abilities.
Are your habits built for the long haul? Is your effort sustainable?
Most Oak trees don’t reach full maturity for 30-40 years.
Most leaders don’t reach full maturity with unhealthy lifestyle rhythms.