Energetic people, dedicated people and individuals with passionate missions utilize the “Two Degrees of Effort Over Time” model in order to bring success into their lives.
Introverted, quiet and even timid people engage the same model in order to bring their dreams to fruition. Each person working on his or her life choice, mission or passion—engages this model for short-term or long-term accomplishment.
What does it entail? How do you engage it? Is there a book out there that explains it? Probably dozens of books address it. For a short course, you might enjoy how easily you can apply it.
As a teen, I walked a paper route of 80 customers, and I made $1.60 a day delivering papers. I asked my dad, “Can you buy me a bike?” He said, “You want it, you earn it. Figure out what it will cost you and then save toward buying it.”
The cost of a Schwinn Cruiser Wasp ran $60.00. I divided my earnings daily into that cost. I faced 44 days of saving money instead of buying soda pop and candy bars after my route. Instead of buying frivolous junk, I saved for my bike. Day by day, week-by-week, I methodically saved my money until 44 days later; I paid cash for the bike and walked out of the store with a brand new Schwinn bicycle for delivering papers. As a bonus, it carried me to all my classes through high school and college.
That bike saved me a ton of time and made my route much easier to finish.
It felt great to pedal by the houses as I let fly the folded papers onto the front door mats of my customers. Voila! Two degrees of effort over time allowed me to buy a bicycle.
In college, instead of watching TV, dating and fooling around at parties on the weekends, I studied seven days a week. On weekends, I reviewed all my course material. While others pulled “all-nighters” at the last minute, I walked into exams with my brain loaded with everything I needed to do well on tests. Again, two degrees of effort over time!
As a resident assistant on a floor of 50 guys my last three years of college, I offered solid wisdom during spring term, “If you guys study two degrees (percent) more during spring quarter, you will enjoy 90 percent higher grades. Why? Because 90 percent of the student body will be out there playing in the sunshine, chasing Frisbees and drinking beer. When the time vanishes, the grades will arrive. You’ll be at the top of your academic class.” Again, two degrees of effort over time yields exponential success.
As to fitness, by lifting weights four times a week, you may increase each exercise by five pounds each week. Your muscles and strength will grow at that two degrees of effort to allow you to swim faster, ride a bike farther or race in a triathlon.
The same concept applies to writing a poem, or painting a picture, or sculpting a piece of art or throwing pottery.
For example, you want to write a story, or commentary or book. By engaging the two degrees of effort over time, you may write two pages a day over six months—that equals a book. The same applies to an artist creating a painting. Whether you work at it for a week or a month—given effort over time, the painting evolves.
As a teacher, I made very little money in my 20s. Finally, I decided to become a summer long-haul furniture truck driver. By applying the two degrees of effort over time, I made five times as much money in the summers in three months as I did teaching math and science in school for nine months. How? I worked 100 hours per week loading, driving and unloading. I ran my van filled to the top, emptied it immediately and loaded it the next day. Hard work? Long hours? Forever driving? You bet! But at the end of the summer, I enjoyed a bank account that allowed me freedoms not imagined by most teachers.
So, what do you want out of your life? Whatever your passion, mission or purpose — move forward with two degrees of effort over time. You can even apply it to losing weight. By deleting a scant 500 calories of food daily, you will lose one pound a week because 7 x 500 = 3,500 calories, which equals a pound. By maintaining that simple equation, within six months, 25 pounds vanish and within a year, 50 pounds disappear from your body. You see the time passes, one way or the other. Take advantage of that time by effectively moving toward your intention, goal or mission.
Whatever your path in life, by engaging the two degrees of effort over time, you grow in your ability to lead your life on your terms.
Read more posts by Frosty Wooldridge here. Frosty is a blogger for JenningsWire Online Magazine.
The online feature magazine, JenningsWire.com, is created by National PR Firm, Annie Jennings PR that specializes in providing book promotion services to self-published and traditionally published authors. Annie Jennings PR books authors, speakers and experts on major high impact radio talk interview shows, on local, regionally syndicated and national TV shows and on influential online media outlets and in prestigious print magazines and newspapers across the country.
