The law of reversed effort means the more you directly pursue a goal, the less likely you are to achieve it. It just means that when you focus on the wrong thing, or doing too much, it could hinder your progress. Doing more may not be the way to do it. Just enough would take you there.
We all want to do more.
We all want to have more. We always want to have something better. Something better than what we have. It is always about becoming better. Be better in life. Be better at work. Be better at what we do.
It seems that we are never content with what we have. Even if we are grateful and thankful, we always look for something more. We are always in the search of something better. And while we treasure what we have, there comes a point in our lives that we want some changes. We want something else.
With this thinking, we try to get more of what we have. We even try to do more than what we are able to perform in the present. We think that by doing more, we can get more. A typical example is when we squeeze more tasks in our time. More tasks thinking we can do it in a limited time. Attend more meetings thinking that there may be important information or discussion in the meeting that we need to know. Take on more projects with the hope that we get noticed and get that promotion that we have been eyeing for.
However, doing more sometimes is doing less. What’s worse is that by doing more, it may lead to results that we do not want such as mediocre performance at work, inability to complete most tasks within deadline, and, sometimes, being paralyzed as we are overwhelmed with things we need to do.
The law of reversed effort which was coined by Aldous Huxley says:
“The harder we try with the conscious will to do something, the less we shall succeed.
“Proficiency and the results of proficiency come only to those who have learned the paradoxical art of doing and not doing, or combining relaxation with activity, of letting go as a person in order that the immanent and transcendent unknown quantity may take hold.”
The harder we try, the less we succeed.
That has a nice ring to it. We are not aware of this but, when look back in your life, or just simply at work. The more effort you give to push yourself in completing a task, the more you are not able to complete it.
My introduction may seem different compared to the law of reversed effort but let me further explain.
At work, we have a lot of things to do. And our general thinking is that we want to finish it as soon as possible because, well, there are a lot. We may see the end of it but we know that work will keep coming so in effect we try to finish it and even spend more time just to clear it out of our plates.
And again, repeating myself and combining it with the law of reversed effort, the more we do, the more effort we give, the less outcome will it be. By pushing ourselves too much, by taking on more than what we could realistically handle, by squeezing every second in our time, we only produce less. We create less.
Notice the following at work:
- Having more than three things to complete on a daily basis. Were you able to finish beyond three tasks that you could say to yourself you are satisfied with what you have produced? Was there a time that when you completed three things you planned out to do on a certain brought you a little bit of peace and a sense of fulfillment?
- Staring at the data and trying to figure it out for hours. Have you had the time when you are trying to think and understand what the numbers on the report is telling you and even after hours and hours of trying to understand it, you really can not figure it out?
- Attending a meeting for long to make a decision. What a waste of time, right? All the bright people in a room (or virtual call) trying to come up with a solution and nothing comes up. All of you have racked your brains but still can not find a workable solution to a problem.
There are other scenarios at work that uses more effort and time that does not really give the desired results. And with the fast-paced world we live in, no one stops, even though they want to. No one wants to take a pause, even if they have to. No one wants to take a step back even if that is what is needed to see the bigger picture and come up with the results.
Stop. Pause. Take a breath.
There is no need to run a sprint. It is not a marathon either. It should not be a race. It is not about who finishes first. It is just about getting to where you want to go. We all need to regularly stop, pause and take a breath so we have the strength to keep moving forward towards our goals.
If we continue do more beyond what we could really do, if we continue to take on more beyond our realistic capacity, if we keep giving more effort without pausing to take a breath, we will all just produce undesired result. In effect, it is detrimental to ourselves and to others.
One colleague of mine a couple of years back said, “We can only ask the people to do overtime up to such time without impacting the quality of their work. Eventually, they will tire. No one will do it even with cash incentives and the quality of work will suffer.”
He is right. It did happen. After a few weeks, no one volunteered for overtime even if the cash incentive is twice as high as before. What’s more, those who did rendered extra time were not able to come to work because they got sick. As additional effect, more work needs to be completed, and the quality suffered.
So, don’t push yourself to do more because you will only do less. Don’t give too much effort because it will only create mediocre results. Don’t take on more than what you can handle as it will only make you complete close to nothing.
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