Effort

Satisfaction lies in the effort, not in the attainment.  Full effort is full victory.  –Mahatma Gandhi

In this fourth issue on the six paramitas, our focus is on effort.  We have previously talked about generosity, discipline and patience.  In exploring how we can examine effort in our lives, we are looking at the expenditure of energy, whether it is physical, psychological, spiritual energy, or all three.  Very often when I think about effort, I decide that I’ve either made too much of an effort, or haven’t made enough effort.  For example, I may believe that I make too much of an effort to make a project work, since I didn’t get the results I was hoping for, and I feel I just wasted my time  Or I may decide that

I haven’t made enough of an effort to accomplish something—which contributed to a poor outcome.

In working with effort from a spiritual vantage point, however, the question I can ask myself is:  “What is enough?”  I work with this question all the time, because I tend to be perfectionistic, and if I’m not careful, I start to realize that I can never make enough effort to be perfect.  I ran a meeting recently and was unhappy with how I conducted the meeting.  My first tendency was to silently blame the participants for not being more conscious of how they were spending their speaking time.  Then I blamed myself for not being patient enough, disciplined enough and generous enough (these paramitas can crop up all over the place!) to myself or others.

I took a deep breath and realized that all my perceptions were completely true and untrue.  That is, I realized that we all get caught up in our sharing when we are meeting with others.  Also, a friend noted that I seemed to be irritated from the moment I walked into the meeting, and that the first thing I mentioned was surgery I was going to be having.  I realized that on that particular day, my anxiety about the surgery was leaking out and I suspect that my feelings of helplessness about the surgery were getting mixed up with my helplessness around being the perfect meeting manager.  I also know that I can become impatient at meetings, striving to find the right balance between moving things along and allowing enough deep discussion for important topics.  That balance is always a moving target, and I am learning how valuable it is not to run meetings perfectly, but rather to become aware of the opportunity I have to work with my perfectionism and impatience when I am running a meeting, and to learn more about managing the energy of the group and the issues we are facing.   Finally I want to make more effort to be forgiving of myself when things don’t go just the way I want.  So my “effort” can take me in all kinds of directions in learning more about myself and my relationships with others.

Effort has become a spiritual practice for me.  Specifically, when running a meeting, I can make a note to center myself before starting, invite divine energy to emerge, check in with myself to see whatever issues I may be bringing in with me, and to simply note that those concerns are present.  I can also promise to breathe deeply when anxiety arises, and allow myself to imperfectly do my best.  Those goals are true in my life in general, too.  I can breathe into life, make an effort to notice what is present, appreciate the sacred that lives within and without, and allow myself to imperfectly, and lovingly, do my best.

In addition to her spiritual practices, Susan R. Quinn of the Quinn Company has been an independent consultant and trainer since 1978.  She specializes in facilitation of problem solving for teams and groups in conflict.  She is certified to train using the DiSC Personal Profile System.  Her other best-received training programs are “Dealing with Difficult People,”  “Managing Conflict,” and “Learning to Live in the Eye of the Hurricane.”  She also offers values clarification workshops and strategic planning services in partnership with her husband, Jerry.  To subscribe to her business ezine, go to www.thequinncompany.com.  You can reach Susan at the Quinn Company, 246 Via Presa, San Clemente, CA  92672, (949) 366-5890, or email susan@thedeepestspirituallife.com.