Giving the best effort for a better you: a twist on escaping reality

Coping. It can be one of the hardest, most stressful, most time consuming, most draining things you can try to do. Coping with death, with trauma, with stress, with just about everything is not easy.

We’ve talked about escaping reality through all different things: listening to music, reading, cleaning, journaling, driving. But, what we haven’t talked about, is how none of this will work without effort.

Getting out of your own head is not an effortless deed. You can’t just do any of the above things I’ve listed casually and without trying. You can’t expect to pick up a book and start reading while you are upset and forget about whatever you are upset about.

Full sending something, to me, means giving whatever you’re doing your best effort. And by best effort, I don’t mean 100%, I mean 110%.

Back to the reading example, as I said before, you can’t just pick up a book and all of a sudden be divulged in a world other than your own. You have to put yourself in the story. You have to create a connection between yourself and one of the characters, picture yourself in the storyline rather than the storyline of the book of your own life. Envelop yourself in it.

You can’t just play a song and free your mind of everything shitty going on outside those headphones. You have to listen to the words, apply them to your situation, feel the beat of the music and banish all negative thoughts.

You need the effort part. It’s the most important.

Without effort, you are just simply doing something you enjoy, which is nice, but it doesn’t serve the coping mechanism purpose: to actually help you through something.

Without effort, you aren’t “full sending” it, you’re more like half sending it, if that’s even a thing.

You can’t get better without trying. It’s simple. You cant’t get out of bed without putting your feet on the ground. You can’t touch your elbow with the hand on the same arm. You can’t love somebody else before you love yourself. You can’t get better, you can’t use these mechanisms, without sending it. Sending all of your effort into your head and using it.

All of your will power, all of everything you’ve ever bottled up inside you. Use it to your advantage instead of letting it pull you down.

Break your chains, stand up, and fly away.

Giving your best effort is good, but you have to start slow. Pick one thing to do everyday. Focus all of your energy into that one thing and work on it until you are satisfied with the outcome. Truly give it your all.

Once that starts to work for you, do two things. Then three. And don’t stop until you can do everything you set your mind to with all of your effort, then you can truly say that you have given life everything you’ve got. Then, you will truly be happy.

You sent it. Full sent it, that is.