I believe that human beings have an extraordinary capacity to achieve incredible things. I think it’s mostly a question of will.
EXPERIENCE
There have been a few times through my working life where I’ve really gone for it. Given the space, time and inclination to work hard on a piece of work can produce some pretty big results or pieces of work relatively quickly. The kind of stuff that people say “wow, this must have taken over your life” has actually only taken me four days. Four friggin hard days. Four mentally exhausting days. Four days where I don’t do anything but the work at hand (no emails, calls, procrastinating). But no, it hasn’t taken over my life. Am I overdoing it or is there nothing that can’t be solved in a week (except perhaps building Rome)?
A BIT SCARY
To be honest, I sometimes find it a bit scary. Not scary like – “I’m going mad” or “what if I’ve spent four days producing crap”, but scary at the huge capacity of people. What if a person gave it their all ALL OF THE TIME? Think how much could be achieved. Think how good you could get at something.
THE WILL
Is it realistic? I don’t know. If I’m honest with myself, I lack the will to find out. And I guess that’s true of most of us. Don’t get me wrong, I work hard in my job most days and I want to do well – it’s not that – I’m talking about genuinely wanting to give one thing everything you’ve got. And I don’t know if it’s possible – there’s a hell of a lot of other stuff to contend with – life…
I suppose we all have to use our will to do virtually everything.
What if we all have a set amount of decision making power to use in a day, and everything we do takes up chunks of it? So it might look something like this:
Things like ‘tea or coffee?’ still require a proportion of my decision making power…other things I might do in the day like ‘making the best presentation I can’ will use a great deal more of my decision making power reserve. If I’ve committed my will to achieving the best presentation I can make, then I’m going to have less will left for the day to go shopping or do exercise or whatever.
I’ve no idea if this is accurate or not. And certainly, the amount of decision making power seems to change day-to-day. Sometimes, getting up requires loads of will…
SPARE CAPACITY OR DEATH
-Cake or death?
-Cake.
-Cake or death?
-Cake.
-No more cake.
-So I’ve got “or death”?
The joys of the path of least resistance…well, who’d choose death? Maybe Chris Hoy would.
This doesn’t just apply to work, does it? I know when I go out for a run I get back and feel like I’m going to die, but within half an hour or so, I’m back to normal. Heck, if I’m totally honest with myself, I could probably go again. Or die? I don’t honestly and genuinely give it my all. If it did, I’d be fit. Fitter…
You see extraordinary feats of will-power like Eddie Izzard do all those marathons or in the Olympics, Sir Chris Hoy’s training video of him crumbling off the training bike and curling up like a baby after some serious training. That man’s got will-power. I think we’ve all got it, but he does apply it – every day – to the same thing. That’s why he is the best in the world at what he does.
I don’t think it’s beyond reach for any of us. I think it’s a bit scary though. Or too much of our will-reserves are taken up with other things…
Apathy is understandable and great to wallow in every now and then. Tiredness can, no doubt, affect one’s will to get on a do stuff. We’ve just got a puppy, and I can feel my will-power to do anything other than eat and sleep is fast draining away. But the more decision making power is swallowed up by not-doing, the less will we will have to do extraordinary and exceptional things.
GIVE IT YOUR ALL
Have you ever honestly given it your all at something?
Try it. For a focused time on a specific thing. Give your absolute all to something. It could be terrifying and/or exhilarating. Who knows, you might change the world with what you achieve…
WHERE THERE’S A WILL, THERE’S A PLAY
Shakespeare, eh? Well good.
Sam Grayston 
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