#467 – How can you do hard things effortlessly?

"There's never an easy route to the things that matter."

—Charles de Lint

We’ve been sold the idea that the things that matter must be hard—and that we need to fight our internal resistance (the Ego and the Ghosts) to get them done.

But what if there’s another way?

After exploring effortlessness as a key to fulfillment, I realized that many deeply fulfilling things do require effort:

• Learning to downhill ski.
• Writing a novel, memoir, or screenplay.
• Completing a PhD.

How do you then balance effort with effortlessness?

This morning it hit me: you don’t balance them––you change how you perceive the effort.

A Course in Miracles defines a miracle as “a correction of perception—a shift from fear to love.”

That means there are two kinds of effort.

One feels like struggle. It churns your stomach like a bitter pill you hope will pay off later. You push through, half-dead inside, eyes fixed on the reward that comes after. Engaging in that type of effort only makes you want to turn on the TV or eat a pint of ice cream.

The other kind is its own reward. You fall, snow seeps under your gloves, your ski poles are unmanageable and your goggles are foggy, and still, you’re alive. You get up and try again.

Or you sit down, day after day, to write your thing. You sweat blood for a few lines. And still, you're alive. And the next day, you do it all over again.

This second kind of effort isn’t driven by fear but by love. Every time you engage in it, you feel rewarded. It's an enlivening effort, not depleting.

You’re not postponing happiness until it’s done. You’re happy because you’re doing it.

How might you see your efforts differently, so you can drop the ones that drain you?

Love,

Carolina