Effort vs Comfort

Winning is not everything, but the effort to win is.

— Zig Ziglar

You are a miracle. A result of an effort that is beyond our ability to comprehend. You see, mathematically speaking, there is 1 in 20,000 chance of your biological mom meeting your biological dad. Then, there is additional 1 in 2,000 chance for them to stay long enough together for a child to be conceived. So, so far, there is a 1 in 40,000,000 chance of you being you.

And this is where the math gets really exciting. Throwing the probability of the right egg (about 1 in 100,000) and the right sperm (about 1 in 4trillion) coming together brings a probability of you being you to … 1 in 400 quadrillion (that is 1 in 400,000,000,000,000,000)! That is one HUGE effort for you to just be you. Yes, you are a miracle, a result of 1 in 400 quadrillion effort.

You are wired to put the best effort forward. A life is a balance of effort and comfort. Ironically, most of us are putting in a daily effort seeking more comfort. Yet, once comfortable, if we stop putting in an effort to grow, we start sliding into a mental despair. Born to expand and to grow, born to win, our spirit is suffocated by prolonged comfort. Too long in comfort dulls the effort, numbs the desire, kills the drive.

Why is that? In both effort and comfort, the core root of the word is “fort”. Fort comes from Latin “fortis” , meaning strength. “Com” means within, “ef” means without. So comfort means being within your strength. Effort means striving outside of your strength. Hence lies the explanation, continuous effort for more comfort is nothing more than growing your strengths. Lack of effort = lack of growth. Lack of growth = lack of comfort = mental and physical decay.

Today, remembering that you are the result of the incredible universal effort, put a little more effort into stepping out of your comfort for more growth, for more wisdom, for more challenge, for more light… You were born to win. You were born to fly… In the word of Guillaume Apollinaire:

Come to the edge – no, we will fall

Come to the edge – no, we will fall

Come to the edge … he pushed them … and they flew

Today, put an extra effort. Come to the edge. Fly 🙂