Balancing effort

There’s an inverse relationship between forcing something to happen and achieving it. 

When you take your foot off the gas and relax a little, that’s when things start to open up. Going 100ph all the time is a recipe for disaster. 

“When you try to stay on the surface of the water, you sink; but when you try to sink, you float’ and that ‘insecurity is the result of trying to be secure,” wrote the philosopher Alan Watts on the law of reversed effort. 

Disconnection is part of effortful learning. When the cortex is over informed, we can’t think logically about our future. Good ideas emerge during periods of rest. 

Now is an excellent time to step away from the grind, to step back and relax. Digest the reality that that work of years drips and pours. 

There’s no reason to clog the drain of overuse. Looking at life from afar makes you stuck proof — it ensures that the well never runs dry.

We balance effort by taking a pause. Letting go is the key to staying afloat.