Take a look at your list of what needs accomplished for the week. I’m going to take a wild guess and say it’s a lot. So, what do we typically do? We charge forward, work hard, steamroll through as much as we can, and may or may not get all the to-do list crossed off.

When you’re in the stage of head down, grind, work relentlessly – where are you going with this hard work? Too often I see from myself and others the effort and hard work is there, but it’s down a path that doesn’t maximize the effort. It’s not a question of work ethic, it’s a question of whether that work ethic is being channeled in a deliberate and purposeful way to be maximized.

How do we know if the hard work is being maximized and we’re being deliberate in our effort?

One method to consider is what I call the pause and recalibrate approach. Hard work and effort need a complimentary skill – the ability to pause. When we pause, we create space to reflect. When we create the right space for reflection, we open the door to uncovering what is and isn’t working well, how we’re investing our time, what direction we’re heading, and much more.

Pausing allows us to uncover where opportunities exist to enhance the journey. When we know where opportunities exist, we can recalibrate what our approach is. Small tweaks here and there to shift more towards maximizing your effort. We’ll always be learning more about ourselves, what we’re trying to accomplish, and the world around us. If we take the time to pause and understand where opportunities exist to enhance our journey, we then allow space to bring in all our continued learnings to recalibrate the path we’re on.

Take your step: identify one area in your journey you’ve been focusing on (career, health and fitness, family, etc.) and take time this week to pause and recalibrate. Make a conscious and deliberate effort to pause from the fast pace running onto the next thing on the to-do list and take a step back. Reflect on where opportunities exist to enhance your journey. Recalibrate by making tweaks to your approach and path forward to maximize the effort you’re putting into working for a better tomorrow.