Striving depletes you
Persistence builds you
You have to do the work. No one pays for average and you can’t get out of the average pile without doing the work. However, the difference your effort makes when you are thriving is very different than the place you find yourself when you are just trying to survive. John Maxwell tells a story, when talking about his rule of five, about someone who needs to chop down a tree. By going out every day and swinging an axe at the exact same place on the tree exactly five times eventually the tree will fall.
I don’t know about you but that story has always sounded a bit boring to me. I’m a type A personality and my tendency is to see that I need to chop down a tree and just go for it with all I’ve got. Start early and just keep swinging the axe till I’ve got nothing left. I drop into my bed at the end of the day and do it all over again the next day, striving for that goal. I’m working really hard. I’m making an incredible effort to achieve the result. The problem is, I’m much less effective the next day and the day after that and the day after that. My muscles have no time to recover so they start breaking down. I get weaker and weaker and less motivated because I don’t feel good physically. It’s taking a toll on me physiologically as well and the negative compound effect is in motion. I’m now in survival mode. I’m doing whatever I can to survive each day and seeing fewer results with the added pressure of knowing if I don’t survive I’m going to die. Just like Sysyphus pushing the giant boulder up the hill, I’m stuck and one day that boulder will take me out.
That is exactly what happen to me about seven years ago. I had been going full out since I was at least sixteen years old. I kept going through marriage, divorce, being a single mom, re-marriage, another child, several moves and two major career changes. I was bound and determined to chop down that tree or push that boulder over the hill (choose your metaphor). But I crashed instead. I crashed hard and I was devastated that all my best efforts were not enough. I knew I was smart, I knew I was capable but I wasn’t enough to survive.
It was time for me to revisit the swinging the axe story, maybe there was something to it. What I discovered was swinging the axe five times in exactly the same place every single day isn’t sexy, it’s persistent. Every day I build the muscle to be more effective in that same place. Every day I make progress and over time the consistency of persistence compounds. Once I started getting the momentum of compounding effectiveness I realized every swing I now take packs a more significant punch. I am not depleted and exhausted at the end of each day. I do not wake up tired and worn down. I am excited for what is ahead of me each day. I feel stronger and more capable each day. Now that is thriving!
This doesn’t mean I don’t have more trees to chop down. It just means I figured out the secret to getting out of survival mode. Striving always leaves you depleted and leads to survival. Persistence always builds you up and leads to thriving.
