"Intelligent Effort and the Development of Centers

All real effort—that is, intelligent effort— is about developing the undeveloped sides of ourselves. Each of us has a machine that is only developed to a small extent on one side of itself. All intelligent Work-effort is about developing all the sides of the machine to which we are connected and bringing it to a right state of working.

However most people have the idea that effort means simply doing something you do not want to do without understanding why it is necessary to do it. Or again, people think that effort consists only in not doing something, in refraining from something.

Now all Work-effort is based on understanding and if you make effort without understanding what you are doing it cannot lead anywhere. It has no meaning for you. You may in this Work through self- observation come to know that you are always in one center and do not use your other centers. If you have begun to understand the Work you will make an aim to make efforts in the direction of your undeveloped centers or parts of centers.

Maurice Nicoll, “Furrther Commentary on Making Work-Effort" in Psychological Commentaries on the Teaching of Gurdjieff and Ouspensky (Vol. 2, p. 766)