In the world of programming, there is a famous acronym; GIGO which means Garbage In, Garbage Out.
In other words, poor coding will produce junk results.
This succinct little acronym applies to change, self-improvement, and teshuvah as well. If we put in lackluster efforts, we will typically receive lackluster results.
Conversely, in the book, Inner Work on page 18 it says;
The deeper the prayer, the deeper the answer to the prayer.
If you feel the need to make a change or do teshuvah but you lack the depth of feeling, regret, or simply lack the desire you can begin by asking G-d for a “full and complete desire to do teshuvah…”
When it comes to doing mitzvot the opposite is true — we put in effort for a limited amount of time but the reward is eternal!
Yitzhak Sasson 