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f we do not make an effort in life, and fail to act when needed, we will either not survive, or we will be considered mentally defunct, and people might "take care" of us in a manner that suits them. If we do not do the basics that are expected, people might be good enough to place us in a special home. 

Or, perhaps, what is needed to minimally succeed at something doesn't get done, and we reap the rewards of that: nothing. 

The above is hypothetical. Many affluent people attribute homelessness and other misfortune to a lack of adequate effort, or some other form of turpitude. This is not really what I am talking about. 

There are those who are not dealing with basic survival, and who do not have hunger pangs, lack of shelter, and other threats to their existence, who do not have that massive incentive that they had better do something to keep oneself alive. If one has income due to parents, an inheritance, or disability payments, effort may not come as swiftly; a comfortable body makes a person likelier to wish for "something more" yet fail to realize that this entails effort. However, effort is not everything. 

Some of the really "successful" ones have the ability to convince, cajole, or frighten others into working on their behalf, netting them the rewards of the work of flocks of employees. Others may do very high level honest work that is valuable enough to compensate them well. This would include being a medical doctor, an attorney, and engineer, and so on. 

Success requires more than sitting in front of the television and believing that you deserve it. You need to do things to be a success, and this entails making an effort. 

I have a lot of understanding of how not to succeed in a typical job situation. One way to achieve not succeeding is to call in sick to work. 

Lack of sufficient effort is one of the numerous ways that people can get into trouble. Yet, there is something to be said for taking a rest break. If we have too much of a "can do" attitude, we might fail to stop for a moment and figure out whether or not what we are doing is making any sense. 

If we put too much effort into things, we could end up doing sloppy work, we could overstrain ourselves to the point of damage, or we might overshoot the goal, which could also be to our detriment. If effort is a little bit less but is well directed and sensible, the result could be a lot better. Sometimes it is when we are not trying that we do our best work. Obsessive effort can cause the body and mind to become overly tense, and this reduces efficiency. 

If we are working at something and trying to get something accomplished, and if things appear to be falling short, piling on more effort isn't always the answer. Instead, maybe we need to rethink how we are approaching the various tasks. And maybe we should rethink the "what" that we are doing as well as how we go about it. 

Continually trying harder at something could generate resistance from the environment. Karma is like the Newtonian Physics of the spiritual realm. Every action has an equal and opposite reaction. Thus, if we push forcefully, it may sometimes generate an opposing force. Perhaps we need to make Karma work for us instead of against us. If we slip into some type of work, while accepting the work activity, and even surrendering to it, we may not generate opposition. 

If you own a Porsche that can do two hundred miles an hour, does that mean that you should always drive two hundred miles an hour? No. Thus, just because we may have the capacity for more effort does not necessarily mean in all situations that we should deploy that. If we go two hundred miles an hour in heavy traffic, it inevitably will create a nasty car wreck. But enough of that analogy... 

When we are working toward a goal and someone is telling us we need to slow down, maybe we had better heed that. Too hard of work, despite the good intentions we may have, can wreck other relationships. If someone needs our attention and we view this as an effort to thwart or derail us, we could be undermining a relationship, and this can cause repercussions that in fact, do thwart us in our goal. 

Excessive obedience is another behavior that can lead to trouble. 

Obedience on automatic or on autopilot can cause you to be taken over by another person's wishes or demands. If the other person isn't always making sense, you must at least have a filter for that. There is no reason to surrender your body and mind to someone else's will. Gender isn't always relevant. Men are ordered around, and not just women. Obedience is the cornerstone of the military. What would happen if soldiers worldwide refused to kill people? Obedience can also cause you to take on someone else's problems and make them your own. When extreme levels of effort are combined with obedience, you have a bad recipe. 

Obedience also creates resentment. Sometimes the individual giving orders isn't at fault--they may be unconscious of what they are doing. Even if the order giver enforces their will by a habit of escalating when the submissive person objects, it is the same. When this happens, a person wanting to be free must understand the situation, and may need to hold their ground in spite of escalation. What would happen if incarcerated people worldwide refused to cooperate? 

This week's column has strayed somewhat from psychiatric illness, stigma, and treatment. I sometimes do this when I need to say something else. However these boundary issues are probably very common among persons with mental illness. Yet, non-afflicted people also have these problems. 

If disabled, it may be a sign of a bad fit if we need to create so much effort that we become massively stressed-out. Having a disability check ought to mean that we could choose a job to do that interests us, or at least one that we don't heavily dislike. There is no reason to torture oneself. 

But, this also applies to almost any task. The concept of pushing oneself to the max should not be applied to mentally ill people or those with PTSD. If everything seems too difficult, maybe we ought to look at how things could be easier. The answer isn't always forthcoming. Life is not always supposed to be easy.