Over the last two decades or so, effort has become a bad word. People have become very lazy and content with sub-par work. I don't get it. How can a student be told he or she did a bad job at say, doing a school assignment, given a chance to redo it for a better (and sometimes just a passing) grade, and the student shrugs his or her shoulders and says, "Nah, that's okay." and walks off?!!! How can they just not care whether they pass, fail, or never complete something?
How does an employee get called into the boss' office to be told he didn't do the job right, and they simply say, "okay" and leave without fixing it?
How does a family member be told to do something to help out the family, and she just never bothers to do it?
What happens at that moment when a person has the chance to choose to make things right, or to just give up and walk away failing to do what has been asked? What thought process happens/doesn't happen to make someone walk off content with never doing things well?
What can we do today to teach those we're responsible for to do the right thing and give their best effort? I believe it starts with accountability. Hold them to a standard, hold them accountable for their actions, or lack of actions. Whether it's your children, students, employees, or whatever the situation, we need to become part of the solution - not part of the problem.
If more people were held accountable for their effort, things would change. Imagine if the chores weren't done around the house, so the child actually lost privileges like in the old days? Maybe it's a few days without their cell phone? It could be no computer time, or not getting to drive the family car. If there was something to lose, perhaps the child would give more effort to do what was EXPECTED of him or her.
What if you have students who don't do their work, and don't pass the tests, and don't care if they pass or fail? Perhaps working something out with the parents would change a bad attitude. Maybe have the student stay after long enough to miss the bus and have to walk home (with the parents agreeing not to pick them up either)? Or maybe the student has to eat their lunch in a separate class and work on assignments for the lunch time? Or what if the student has to maintain a particular grade average to be allowed to participate in certain groups, clubs, or even field trips? There are things that matter that could become rewards for effort rather than expected free gifts just handed out, regardless of effort put forth.
On the job site, I may be very old-school on this, but I believe if you don't give your best effort, you're showing you don't want nor care about the job - and it should be given to someone else who IS willing to do their best. If you're habitually late, you should be docked from your pay, and after 3 times, fired. If you constantly call in sick without extenuating, serious situations, you should be fired and replaced by someone who wants to come to work and earn that paycheck day after day. If you don't do your work at an acceptable level of competency, speed, and accuracy, you should seek more training to improve, not wait for a boss to offer it. They have better things to do than monitor every single employee's daily attitude. If you don't care enough to improve, you should be replaced by someone who provides a daily effort to improve and do the job well.
Effort is the opposite of laziness. If you aren't willing to give your best effort to things, there should be consequences. Laziness should carry uncomfortable or disappointing consequences so that effort is rewarded.
Let's stop allowing society to grow lazier and careless. Stand up and let those you're in charge of that you now carry expectations on them, on their effort, that a lack of effort will no longer be accepted. If we all started doing this, our young adults, graduates, and employees would turn this nation around so we could once again be known as hard-working Americans.
