Ampersand Answers: Planned Effort

Progress gets easier when effort has a plan. 

Rick Levine, General Horoscope 

The Question: 

How can I make effort be easy?  

&mpersand Answers:  

Oh do we Westerners love progress. Most especially, we love to measure progress. It’s true. Our whole public education system is based on measuring progress. They’re called grades. 

I knew a college student once who graduated and fell into a serious depression that fall. It was the first time in her life that she hadn’t received a report card, and she wanted to know how she was doing in life. 

Plans, too, are one of those things. Some of us love to plan, and make color-coded study schedules like Hermione. Others plan to wing it, and thrive in that circumstance. The most important thing is to know how plans and planning affect your personal effort. 

If they support you, great. If they undermine you, great. But you have to know which method works best for you. If your efforts are flagging, go check your plans.  

So often things in life are easier when you know yourself well enough to figure out what will support you and what won’t. Then you’ll measure your progress with appropriate enthusiasm, and keep fulfilling your plan. 

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