Why Effort Without Allignment is Waisting Your Life

Summary

In this episode of the Giving a Purpose podcast, Jacques LaGrange discusses the significance of aligning effort with purpose to avoid burnout and achieve meaningful results. He emphasizes that being busy does not equate to productivity and highlights the importance of self-investment and focus. Through biblical references and personal anecdotes, he encourages listeners to assess their commitments and eliminate distractions to enhance their alignment with their goals.

Transcript

Jacques LaGrange (00:00.63)
Are you busy, but still broke? Let's talk about it next on the Giving a Purpose podcast.

Jacques LaGrange (00:31.97)
Welcome to the giving a purpose podcast where we bridge the highs, the lows, the lessons learned through life's journey and filling in the gap. You already know what it is. New episode, new week. Come here. Come here. Listen, this is what I need you to do. Make sure you subscribe to this great podcast. Share it with somebody. Click the bells, man.

Listen, hopefully this will bless somebody today. I kind of want to talk to you guys about why effort without alignment is a waste of time. Have you ever not been in alignment? And when you're not in alignment or you have these burnouts or you're real tired, sometimes it's not the effort, but effort without the alignment.

is wasting your time. Listen, nowadays people are exhausted, overworked, overcommitted, and we're still not progressing. Have you ever felt like that? Sometimes you feel like that on your nine to five, or sometimes you just, you're in that wheel, that hamster wheel, right? And we often confuse movement with momentum, and then we call that grinding.

or something like that. Like that's not hustle. That's actually leakage, right? So this episode, want to teach you how self-investment with alignment.

how to start pouring energy into things that give, how to stop pouring energy into things that give you no return, right? This episode is gonna show you how to do those things, because I've done it so many times where you've given effort to things, you've done all the things that you're supposed to do, and you get no return on it.

Jacques LaGrange (02:45.134)
And we think sometimes that we keep busy if we do this and we do that, that that's going to count, but it doesn't. The thing is right now is you do not need motivation. We just need better direction. All right. We don't, we don't lack the motivation. We have motivation. We're waking up on the right side of the bed. We want to do these things, but sometimes we're not going.

in the right direction. And that's the thing that gets us tired. Being busy is not necessarily a badge of honor, right? It's often we're keeping busy, but we have no clarity of the direction that we're trying to go. Burnout isn't from doing too much. It's from doing the wrong things. And oftentimes we're doing the wrong things

And that's where we feel tired. We feel exhausted. We feel like we've given a lot. We've over committed. Now, when you're in alignment, that creates the acceleration. All right. Misalignment creates the exhaustion that we have from doing the wrong things. God doesn't bless our chaos. He always is going to bless our order.

So when we're in alignment with him, right, that's when he's gonna like, okay. You getting in alignment with what I need. That's how I'm gonna bless you. Discipline without direction is wasted energy. All right. Let me kind of give you some foundation for my good people out there. Listen, Proverbs 4.26 says, give careful thought to the past.

for your feet. And I want you to think about that. Have you ever thought about your direction? Have you ever prepared for the task that you're about to do? Have you ever prepared for your day that you're about to take? Have you ever prepared, even simple things, going to the store, grocery store? Have you ever prepared for how you're gonna go into the gym? How you move in the direction that you go in?

Jacques LaGrange (05:12.258)
Have you ever prepared before you do? That's basically what that scripture is saying. Give careful thought to the paths, right? To the direction of where your feet are gonna go. In Haggai 1 and 6, you earn wages only to put them in a purse with holes.

Listen, going to work, having no direction, having no plan is just like, you're just in, like I said, you're in that cycle and you're just wasting money. You ever had just holes in your pocket and just losing things, right? All right. Also we got Luke 14, 28 says, who builds a tower? Who builds a tower without first counting the costs, right? Before you, you.

you wanna have an outline. You wanna make sure that what you're doing and what you're trying to build, how much time is it gonna cost you? How much money is it gonna cost you, right? You want to have a clear path to what you're trying to do, right? And the last one I got for you, 1 Corinthians 9.26.

I do not run aimlessly.

You know what that reminds me of? You know one thing that I don't like to do? Like I'll run outside. I'll walk outside. I do that. I'm not a big treadmill person. Like running and actually going nowhere on the treadmill mentally, you know, like I'll do it. Sometimes I'm trying to burn calories. get it. But like for me, I hate running the treadmill because I'm physically going nowhere. Like I see the numbers calculating on there saying,

Jacques LaGrange (07:00.1)
you've walked a mile, you've walked three miles, but same people, I'm in the same place and different things like that. And that's why I'm really not a treadmill type of person. Now.

I, some of us, we are walking around and we're just tired. Are you guys exhausted out there? Leave, leave something down in the comments and let me know if you're just tired, if you're just exhausted. And what I'm realizing is the reason why I'm tired and exhausted is because I'm out of alignment.

just out of alignment. I have no alignment for where I'm going. So you know what we're gonna do? You hang tight, we're gonna fix that today. All right? First thing we wanna do is, the real issue is, I hear people say it all the time, I'm busy. What you doing? I'm busy. Busy doing what, duh? What you busy doing? Like, what are you busy doing? Busy isn't productive though.

Like some people have many tasks, but it's getting them nowhere, right? Like I said, being busy doesn't produce results all the time.

And we often are confused with thinking that that's doing something for us. Busy is often just unconfused effort wearing a cape. Right? Your problem isn't that you're lazy. The problem is you're leaking energy. You're just doing stuff.

Jacques LaGrange (08:56.14)
and it's just falling by the wayside and you have no alignment and no direction. All right? Ever seen somebody at a gym every day and they still out of shape?

Jacques LaGrange (09:09.592)
Same hours, same effort, but you know what the problem is? You're doing the wrong program.

Right? I see it all the time. Like there's a group of people that, not a group of people, but there's different people that come into the gym that I go to all the time. And literally they're doing the same exercises all the time. Now I don't try to be the, cause I don't ever in the gym want to come off as like I'm trying to hit on somebody, especially females and stuff like that going in there or being this, because I used to be a personal trainer. So yeah, sometimes I want to give.

people tits, but sometimes I was just one of people, know, sometimes the gym could be their escape. Sometimes the gym is just the place where they go. I don't know if it's all about the workout for them, but it's these two people that come in, they do the same workout every time. And one, they look the same, but two, you're not getting the results you probably think that you are. Like, yes, you may be slowly, cause you may be consistent in doing what you're doing, but you're not gonna get the results.

especially if you're trying to gain muscle, if you're trying to either lose weight or anything like that, you're not gonna get the results you want to do because we can't pick and choose. We can't just do leg exercises. We can't do, all right, we're just gonna go in here and do a million sit-ups and that's gonna get rid of all the belly fat. That's not the program. You are wasting your time. You are, as I said before, you're just leaking energy.

You're just putting your energy into something that isn't gonna get you the exact results that you want. Self-investment means every action gives a return. So when I wanna do something, when I wanna be specific, I need everything that I do, either emotionally, spiritually, mentally, and even financially.

Jacques LaGrange (11:14.368)
I want to return. That's what investment really is. I want to invest in stuff, right? If it doesn't grow me, if it doesn't stretch me, if it doesn't prepare me, it's too expensive. And it's not an investment, right? So I need something when I'm doing it. I need it to have movement that goes for work, that goes for relationships, that goes for...

just things that I do. Slow and steady can get you further distances. So that's okay. It can be slow and steady, but it has to give a return, right?

Like we talked about in Haggai, Haggai said, you're earning money, but putting you in a purse with holes. That's really effort without alignment, right? Ask yourself this, you gotta do in an alignment audit, right? What drains you, but doesn't develop me? All right, if you have that, put that down in the comments. What drains you, but doesn't develop you? All right?

I want you to put your answers down in the comments. What am I committed to that no longer fits who I am becoming? All right, answer that, put that down in the comments for me. Also, if you stop doing this, will my future actually suffer? Those are your audit questions that I want you guys to kind of put down in the comments for me.

Listen, I've been a coach, I've been a mentor, right? I've coached talented people who are just exhausted, not because of lack of ability, but because they lack focus. Once we cut distractions, their confidence came back, right? It's not because of the drills that we're doing. It's not because they don't have the skills, but because they're not focused.

Jacques LaGrange (13:29.76)
or buying into the program, which we're talking about alignment, right? They're just distracted by things. Sometimes, because I know when we would, when I was coaching at one point, we would actually start our off-season program as soon as we got back from Christmas break in January. And I'm not gonna hold you. It's freezing. But if we're practicing, there's a couple of things.

I need you to not to get distracted by. One is the cold. Yes, it's cold. But guess what? The other teams are out there practicing in the cold.

they're trying to get better. They're going to be games where it's going to be this cold. You have to then train your mind to not focus on the cold. And then that will then train your body that it's not that cold. And realize when you do play the game, you're playing against a team in the same temperature, right? Stop letting those distractions make you lose your focus, right? And once you do that, you'll have the confidence

to play in any condition or do anything that you wanna do. Stop letting these little distractions get you off your focus. Stay focused. And I'm talking to myself too, all right? The Bible says, I do not run aimlessly. That means even faith needs a strategy, right? Even faith needs a strategy. Remember faith without works is dead, right? This week.

Don't add anything. I don't want you to add anything to your plate. Think about cutting something. Make room, right? Now I need you to cut something, but make room for alignment because your effort has to match your purpose. That's good right there. And then your results will stop being optional. So let me say that again. When your effort matches your purpose, your results...

Jacques LaGrange (15:38.638)
will be better and they won't be optional. Right? You don't need, you do not need, listen, we all get the same, but you do not need more hours. You don't need more hours in a day. You need fewer leaks in your life. Right? Believe, expect, and invest wisely. Now I need you guys to do the two most important things I ask you to do every week.

Make sure you live on purpose and make sure you live in purpose. I'll see you guys next time. Peace.