Effort Still Matters

Reframing success as a day I tried and did my best

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“Ryan, I will never question your effort,” the strength coach for my college cross country team told me.

But he did say this while questioning my technique. The extreme effort I was giving to the exercises we were doing was not beneficial. For example, I could not do pull-ups without compensating more on one arm than the other. My lopsided pull-ups where I would rise higher on the right arm than the left arm became a source of laughter to my entire team and the strength coach. I recall there were basic squats I did wrong during my first lifts, too, and my attempts to max out deadlifts also was somewhat comical. But the message was pretty simple.

Effort was not enough. Infinite willpower was just holding me back if I could not get the technique right. In fact, I was probably trying too hard — the goal of these lifts wasn’t to get jacked or build upper body strength as long distance runners, but to increase flexibility and prevent injury.

I would be known for giving a lot effort as my reputation in all aspects of my life — as an athlete, as a student, and in my professional life as a teacher. But it would be too much effort, an extreme amount of effort, a detrimental amount of effort that sacrificed sleep, health, nutrition, and mental health at the…