Doubling Your Effort

Friday Feelings and Business Advice for Women Entrepreneurs, Small Business Owners


How many times do we pre-determine a goal or decision before we start on our way? I bet more than not we do this more than 50% of the time. Within the past 24 hours, I limited my thinking prior to beginning tasks and ended up doubling my efforts because the rhythm and energy of what I was doing swept me up.


When it is 37 degrees out, planning a 10-mile bike ride at 8 a.m. isn’t the first distance you think about completing – maybe a 2-miler or 5-miler. But as the sun hit my face and my legs got juice pumping in them, even with the brisk air coloring my cheeks, my spirit soared and I clocked in a joyous 10 miler.

Similarly with a list of ten sales calls in front of me yesterday morning, I figured if I got through half of them, I’d be happy. I created my “no thanks,” “yes!”, and “maybe” response columns prepared to receive a multitude of answers to my sales pitches. What happened? Once I got to five, I wanted to keep going because the answers were positive and the enjoyment from talking to clients made me want to do more calls. Who would think that would happen doing sales calls?


Sometimes the “quantity” of goals gets doubled if we allow the right mindset to evade us and if our natural tenacity for challenge overcomes us. It is perfectly okay to feel resistance at the start of anything really; but once we get going most times our motivation and fulfillment moves us further doubling our efforts making us more eager the next time to do it again.