No Development Without Effort

Hey, good morning team. Workshop Wednesday. So here we are, it is already June. First week will almost be gone very soon. I wanted to reach out and I wanted to talk to you a little bit today. Wednesday Workshop, a little bit on the concept of effort and work.

Calvin Coolidge, 30th President of the United States, said this, “All growth depends upon activity. There is no development either physical or intellectual without effort, and effort means work.”

That’s right everything that you do in life that has any kind of ability to help you. In the physical realm like working out, losing weight, exercising, building your body, and becoming stronger. Intellectually becoming smarter, working around, learning how to innovate, and coming up with new ideas. Nothing is ever easy in life. It requires effort.

There’s no development without effort.

It requires work. It requires putting forth one foot in front of the other to climb that mountain. To climb that hill. To do that thing.

I remember being in the Marine Corps as a young man. We’d go on these long walks together as Marines with big packs on our backs. We would hike 20 miles or more and you’d get to some of these hills on Camp Pendleton, down in the San Diego area. Sometimes you think of California, you think of the beaches and you think of this easy flat land. You don’t realize how many hills there are around Southern California unless you’ve been on one hiking up it. Straight up at major inclines, up and down, and around. Blisters on your feet, tired, sweating, and being yelled at. It’s awesome. It’s good stuff but it’s to get to that end destination.

You’ve got to work. You’ve got to climb. There’s no development without effort.

The best way you can do that is to put one foot in front of the other. 23 years ago Karen and I started Northwest Enforcement and here we are, 23 years later. We’re still growing but we’re still putting one foot in front of the other. There are days it’s hard. It is really tough and then there are days that are a little more enjoyable. Maybe we’re having a party and we’re breaking open a pinata with our team. Or we’re throwing water balloons at each other. Summer’s coming, it’s going to be exciting but there’s still work involved even in setting up those parties. There’s work involved.

What I have come to notice in these last few years is that many hands make the work light.

I love that statement, I love that phrase and I might just go get a tattoo somewhere on me. Many hands make the work light and it’s so really true. It is getting easier because we have more people involved that are lending a hand. That are building something greater than themselves.

It is awesome but it is still work and there are still hard days.

I know that Sonja and Christina…and oh my goodness, Christina, I love you so much. I just want you to understand how much I appreciate you. You are such an amazing young woman. Guys, you have no idea the work she puts in to help make sure that timesheets and payroll, and billing happens on time. The amount of work that lady puts in. Christina deserves a shout-out because she puts in vast amounts of effort to get things done.

This last week, the entire executive team was gone on a trip to build and grow. To inspire us to keep looking for ways to work and become more in and have more initiative and be more innovative on how we approach things and talk to other companies about how they’re approaching things. See if there are ways that we can work smarter, not harder. That required more work to be done back here because we weren’t here.

Christine is one of those people that stepped up. I know this is not a Thank You Thursday but I just want everybody around, if you’re reaching out to Christina in any shape or form, make sure you’re telling her thank you. Have a little gratitude as I talked about on Monday for the amazing work and effort that Christina puts into what we do. That was a side note, thank you Thursday on top of a Wednesday, but guys it’s really true.

You don’t get better without growing and reaching out and working hard.

It doesn’t just come to you. It’s just not going to happen. You’re not promised an easy life but life is there and we have the greatest nation on the planet. Some of us sometimes feel I get it, it’s not the same as it used to be. It might be not exactly the best that you think it is. But I’m telling you right now, it is amazing. It is absolutely amazing what we have at our fingertips and together what we can accomplish.

So on this Wednesday, let’s get out there and get some work done. Let’s put in some effort and let’s grow and let’s continue to be better than we were yesterday. Together we can do this. There’s no development without effort.

God bless you. Have a wonderful week. It is Wednesday Workshop. Tomorrow is thankful Thursday and we are marching on right into next week. God bless you. Enjoy your weekend. Have a wonderful week. Thank you for all you do. Thank you for the effort and the work that you do. We appreciate you. All right, God bless you. See you guys next week.