It seems to me there is a difference between effort and pursuit. I haven’t arrived at any conclusion yet but let me give it a little effort and pursue the topic.

It seems the main difference is how you feel when making an effort. Effort suggests getting past inertia and doing something, and that something can be taxing to your mind and body. For example, there is an expression you may have heard from someone after their exercise routine: “It’s a good hurt.”

The effort taxed them when they pursued exercise but the sore muscles the next day indicated to them that they were on to something – thus, “good hurt.”

For me, “Good hurt” sums up pursuit.

Let’s pretend that you did a “selfie” video of you doing something nondescript that brought you enjoyment and you posted it online. Many people may call your video lame but you got a warm fuzzy pursuing your expression. Contrast that with a video that you thought you “had” to make to make a point. A lot of effort may have gone into it, but there was no feeling of reward after posting it. It’s just something that “had” to be done.

The effort you expend in pursuing your goal is colored by the way you feel during and after making the effort. If it’s a non-rewarding feeling through and through, it can’t be categorized as pursue.

Winning is an end game. Pursuit is enjoying playing the game.

If you are expending a lot of effort without some feeling of reward, you may get an “A” for effort, but not enough reward to feed your soul.

I’m guessing that’s why we have hobbies – to feel the reward of pursuit.

I’m a lousy golfer. I only play 10 times a year at most, but I have enjoyed every round I have played since taking up the game in 2002. I have played with many people over the years and I can tell you many of them put in lots of effort but were not feeling the reward of pursuit. To paraphrase Mark Twain, “They ruined a 4 hour walk.”

I have expended some effort putting out this point of view and feel rewarded even if this makes no sense to you. I think that is the essence of pursue.

In life, there are many unrewarding things we have to do. The thing to get curious about is: “What’s pursue for you?”

All the best,

John