My first quarter of school is over, and I had the biggest learning of my life. Many things in life we think we know but only when we are challenged and put in untested territories, we truly know our quality of living our understanding of life. I do not know how this happened to me but somewhere in the first quarter my head got fixated around grades and my performance, it was so weird I have always enjoyed school for the experience, meeting friends, and learning and exploring new things, but this time the first quarter was dull while I was there but somewhere I knew I was not myself. Was it because everyone was saying how important grades are and “Anuj make sure you get you’re A’s”? Something that was eating me inside for the past few weeks and then had a moment of realization this week which I would like to share with everyone.

Throughout my life, I have learned to live around the principle that effort is what matters and always got positive enforcement around the same from my parents and my mentors. We grow up being taught that in life it is not about results and it is the effort that matters. While saying it to somebody it sounds very good, but at the heart of it somewhere it feels like a consolation prize if the results do not come, whether it is playing a game or points on a test. If we do not get the best of results, we often say to ourselves “I put in the effort” then why does it not ever feel like winning, but rather self-consolation. I have been searching for this answer aimlessly for the past week and had led to a degree of irritation in me, as while I knew I was putting in the effort and saying to myself that it is the effort that matters, true in my heart I figured that it was no longer the truth.

This week I had a moment of truth and an inner realization that effort truly is the act of doing something merely for the joy and curiosity to learn and do something for oneself, whereby you do not want anyone to know that what you are doing as it is for the joy of doing. Once I had heard my grandmother say to me that when you do something good, like donating, do it in a way such that even the left-hand does not know what you have done with your right hand. That is probably what true unconditional giving or in my case here I can say “pure” effort which is free from praise, expectations, and ego, the inner I’s. While I do have this inner understanding of what effort truly is, it is hard to implement in real-life. While I was in the right direction I was not yet fully satisfied and then yesterday when I was doing my math homework it struck me if all the answers of the universe are somewhat in mathematics then is it possible that the answers to life are also in math. Is that X + Y = Results? If X is effort, then what is Y?

I now know X, represents true honest effort, but what keeps X honest and pure of high quality. I continued to apply this to a recent change in my life. My entire life I have never been able to wake up by myself in the morning, but for the past few days something changed, and I have been waking up by the beep of my alarm. What changed? It is not that I have not put in the effort before, but then what has changed. The effort is not different than before. The answer came to me it is not X + Y, but it is X ÷ Y. If X ÷ Y = Results and X is constant effort, which has not changed, then Y has to be the thing that has changed. But what is Y, and why is Y important?

Well, Y is the why. It is the purpose of why we are putting in the effort. If the purpose is outcome-oriented such as being rewarded or getting first place, or self-focused, then the purpose is a higher number such as 2, 3, 4, or greater. Therefore, one has to put more effort and even the result may not be the best. If the purpose is being not self-focused, serving others, or for the inner joy then the quality of purpose is a number such as 1 which will make your effort your result.

Now that I know both having a quality true purpose and being committed to it is important, I am set for my New Year’s resolution with Diwali approaching this week. For Diwali, let us together once again light up our chandelier with inspirational and positive thoughts during these times. CLICK HERE to light up our chandelier. Continue to join me and share on my social channels by clicking below and please do like, comment, and subscribe.

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