When Doing More Stops Helping

I have always been comfortable with effort.

Give me something that needs building, fixing or working through and my natural response is usually to lean into it.

That can be useful. Until it is not.

There is a strange point where productive effort quietly becomes repetition. You rewrite the same thing. Revisit the same decision. Check the same problem from another angle. You are busy, but you are no longer necessarily moving.

The difficult part is that it still feels responsible.

Doing more gives us the sensation that we remain in control.

Sometimes, though, the work has already been done. The email has been sent. The conversation has happened. The opportunity has been prepared properly. Now something outside you has to respond.

That space can be uncomfortable.

It asks for a different kind of discipline: leaving something alone.

I am beginning to think that knowing when to stop is just as important as knowing when to push.

Not everything improves because we keep touching it.

Some things need a little distance. Some decisions need a night’s sleep. Some opportunities need another person to make the next move.

And sometimes the most useful thing you can do is close the laptop, go outside and return to your own life.

Effort matters. So does knowing when enough is enough.

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Reflection for the week

Where in your life are you adding more effort to something that may actually need space?