Stop Trying To Achieve Your Goals: The Law of Reversed Effort

Don’t Try to be Human and be Human

The more you try to succeed, the less you do.

It’s one of life’s most confusing paradoxes.

But think about it for a second…

I’m sure you’ve experienced a time when you wanted to say something, but the thought slipped your mind.

You press in harder to catch it, yet nothing comes. You stop thinking about it completely, and then it randomly slaps you out of nowhere.

This is the law of reversed effort.

The more you try, the harder things become.

That’s not your cue to put your feet up and eat snacks in front of the television.

No.

The key to leveraging the law is to determine the result you want using your conscious mind and then let your subconscious handle the rest.

I know it sounds complicated right now.

Let me show you how it works…

The Pink Elephant Paradox

Think of a pink elephant.

Is it big or small? Does it have tusks? Does it look happy?

Put as much detail into the elephant — also, consider its environment.

Great!

Now you’ve got the picture of the pink elephant in your mind, clear your head of all thought.

Stop thinking about it.

Think of another topic for around 30 seconds…

You ended up thinking of the pink elephant, didn’t you?

If you’re anything like an ordinary person, the elephant probably crept back into your mind within a few seconds despite your best attempt to get rid of it.

This phenomenon is known as the Pink Elephant Paradox.

It illustrates how intrusive thoughts work.

The more you try to suppress a thought, the more intrusive it becomes.

Scientists named the process “Ironic Process Theory” (IPT): a phenomenon where deliberate attempts to suppress certain thoughts make them more likely to surface due to limited cognitive resources.

Namely, when individuals intentionally try to avoid a certain feeling, emotion, or thought, a paradoxical effect is produced.

The attempt at avoiding the thought not only fails but also causes the thought, feeling, or emotion to occur more frequently and intensely.

Though these scenarios relate to thoughts, feelings, and emotions, the same happens when you try to bring about a desired result…

As you constantly obsess about what you want, your mind registers the obsession as a lack thereof.

For example, “Trying to make ends meet” means that ends aren’t meeting.

The more you try to make them meet, the more you remind yourself that they aren’t meeting.

A famous Brian Tracy quote sums up what happens as a result: “You become what you think about most of the time.”

If you’re constantly trying to achieve your goals, you’re implicitly reminding yourself that you’re not where you wanna be.

The more you try, the more you inadvertently think about your lack.

If you constantly think about your lack, you’ll produce more of it.

Preoccupation disturbs creativity

Trying to do something, like suppress a thought, makes the opposite more likely.

This has been shown to affect emotions, focus, and decision-making abilities negatively.

A 1987 paper titled “Paradoxical effects of thought suppression” showed that trying to suppress a thought can lead to obsession or preoccupation.

The study involved participants taking part in two experiments in which they were told to verbalize their stream of consciousness for five minutes.

As part of the first experiment, the participants were informed to refrain from thinking about a white bear.

In the second experiment, the participants were asked to think about a white bear.

The researchers discovered that participants from the first experiment were more preoccupied with thinking about the white bear even though they were asked not to.

Flip this to trying to achieve your goals…

When you’re trying to realize a desired outcome, you’re simultaneously preoccupying yourself with the lack of the desired outcome.

If you’re preoccupied with the lack of the desired outcome, you don’t have the capacity to come up with creative solutions to tackle the obstacles ahead.

For example, I have a niece…

When she’s got her iPad and she’s watching CoComelon, fahgettaboudit.

You’re not getting her attention!

She’s preoccupied.

Everything that exists in her environment becomes irrelevant — the only way to get her attention is to remove the iPad…

When you’re preoccupied with trying to bring about a desired outcome, your emotions, focus, and decision-making are negatively impacted cos your cognitive resources are being used up in the absence of the desired outcome.

You’re implicitly fixated on the lack, so you can’t create abundance.

Thus…

The more you try to succeed, the less you do.

Don’t try to be Human and be Human

“The Godhead is never an object of its own knowledge, just as a knife doesnt cut itself, fire doesn’t burn itself, light doesn’t illuminate itself. “ — Alan Watts

I know what you’re thinking…

“If you’re not supposed to try to achieve your goals, what are you supposed to do?”

First of all, start by understanding your mind…

There’s two layers to it: conscious and subconscious.

The conscious part is what gives rise to your free will — here’s where you direct your energy and focus.

Your subconscious is the part that influences your thoughts, emotions, and behaviors.

Basically…

The conscious mind lets you set your goals, and your subconscious mind aligns your emotions, thoughts, and behaviors with the objective.

When you’re trying to bring about a desired outcome, what’s happening behind the scenes is your conscious mind is interfering with the responsibilities of the subconscious.

The subconscious doesn’t know it’s being interfered with. It just takes what it’s told from the conscious. Thus, your subconscious mind interprets the interference as “Oh, he wants more of his current circumstance.”

Thus, it aligns your thoughts, emotions, and behaviors to produce more of what you don’t want.

The key to leveraging the law of reversed effort is to let each part of your mind do its job.

Your conscious mind is responsible for determining the goal. Your subconscious mind is responsible for pursuing it.

This doesn’t mean you should do nothing in the meantime…

Set the goal and build your system.

For example, if your objective is to become the biggest writer on Medium, you still need to write.

The more you write, the more surface area you create for luck to do its thing.

What changes is how you think about the content you create

You’re not writing to try to become the best writer…

You’re writing to help others and get better at writing.

You get my drift?

Let your subconscious guide you to achieving what you want.

Final thoughts

The more you try to succeed at something, the less you actually do.

Stop trying!

Remove your conscious mind from the process of bringing about a desired end. Only use it to set the direction.

Once the waypoint has been set, let your subconscious mind take over to bring about the desired result.

This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t work hard. There’s a stark difference between working hard and trying hard.

Working hard will speed up the process. Trying hard will obstruct it.

Thanks for reading!

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