To do this Work requires effort. Effort in the Work is psychological. It is all about not identifying and Self-Remembering. Effort in the Work is all about observing oneself—observing 'I's in oneself and not going with them. Effort in the Work is about being sincere to oneself and so knowing what one's motives really are, and not pretending. Effort in the Work is about remembering oneself and not becoming at every moment identified with everything and everybody. Effort in the Work is to stop inner talking. Effort in the Work is not to let negative impressions fall where they mechanically would fall. Effort in the Work is not to pile up internal accounts against others, but to try to see in yourself what you blame in others—as, for example, unkindness.

All effort in the Work is passive. Self-development starts from passive Do. Effort is something very quiet and deep and clearly seen. It is not noisy, not pretense. Effort in the Work is about effort on your inner states, where you are in your psychological country. All effort in the Work is about becoming more conscious of yourself to yourself. All effort in the Work is about seeing where you are inside—in what place internally in this vast psychological country—and separating yourself from the innumerable bad places in that country. Remember that to move away from a bad inner state is only possible by non-identifying. An ordinary mechanical man or woman is totally identified with his or her inner state at each moment. A person who begins to work begins by knowing what it means to non-identify with the bad 'I's that inhabit those states—those 'I's in you that live in slums. You then begin to know what the Work means and therefore what can lead to change of Being.

Maurice Nicoll, “On Realizing That One is Not Conscious” in Psychological Commentaries on the Teaching of Gurdjieff and Ouspensky (Vol. 3, p. 1005).