The appropriate amount of effort is zero

Summary

Most people put too much effort into everything they do. Here’s a good example from Kristijan around tension in his hands when touching and holding things: It’s a great example, because gripping too tightly, as we might with the hands, is a great metaphor for what it’s like everywhere else in your system. There’s a pattern of pervasive over-gripping that, once you start to look for it, you will find everywhere. There is an appropriate amount of energy required for each activity. Holding a cup, turning a steering wheel, or writing a blog post all need exactly the amount of energy that they need. This may sound like a truism, but if it were so obvious, why do many drivers often realise they are driving with a vice-like grip, with tension running up into their shoulders and jaws? Let me share my slightly unusual definition of “effort”: it’s the felt experience of expending energy beyond what an activity requires, like tensing your brow when you try to understand something, or the excess tension in your hand when you hold your phone. Using this definition, it’s clear that the appropriate amount of effort for any activity is zero. This idea is where the concept of non-doing can trip people up, because it doesn’t mean no action. It means no effort, even though the amount of energy required could be large. Or, to borrow from Daoist wisdom: "Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished." — Lao Tzu Nature is an enormous flow of energy, yet nature makes no effort. Everything nature does is perfectly well-suited to what it does, and it cannot be otherwise. This is why non-doing comes with a felt experience of effortlessness, when it seems like everything is working exactly the way it’s supposed to be. Consider this quote from Katie Ledecky who, with 14 Olympic medals, is described as “the most decorated female swimmer in history”: “I felt so relaxed. It just felt very easy, and that's why it surprised me that I had broken my world record.” — Katie Ledecky Not only tha...