Law of Reversed Effort
This mental model, sometimes called the “backwards law,” suggests that excessive conscious effort can sabotage success, especially for tasks that rely on relaxation, intuition, or the subconscious mind. The maxim is: “The harder you try, the harder you fall” or “The more you force it, the less it works.” It was popularized by writer Aldous Huxley in the context of psychology and self-improvement. Essentially, overtrying creates tension that blocks the natural flow needed for achievement.
• Examples:
• Trying desperately to fall asleep often keeps you more awake, as the anxiety from the effort builds.
• In creativity or problem-solving, forcing ideas can lead to mental blocks; stepping back and letting the mind wander often yields breakthroughs.
• Your cat example fits perfectly: The more aggressively you try to snuggle or hold a cat, the more it resists and squirms away, but a relaxed, indifferent approach might draw it closer
I think the idea if working smarter is under appreciated.
Sometimes working harder doing more or adding more doesn’t yield better results.
One area I have learned this is my skin care routine— my husband has been telling me for years that I should stop doing so much shit to my skin.
And he’s not wrong, the propaganda around skin care is insane. You can be sold on the idea that you need so many different products for all your different skin care afflictions.
As a business person, it’s a gold mine: small size, easily marketed as premium, consumable and multiple pain points to solve.
The key here is the striking the balance between enough and optimization.
Let me explain.
You need to know what the least amount of effort/ product will make your skin healthy. Ideally just water 50% of the time. Like wash your face 1-2 times a day based on hygiene (sweating, dirt).
Add product that protects, prevents or reverses problems.
If you did nothing or maybe wash your face like you do your hair every week or every day depending on where you land on that spectrum, your skin may or may not be perfectly fine depending on the region you live in, diet, stress, hormones or products you use on hair and laundry.
Fix your skin with the least external solutions possible and most internal possible. Sleep, diet, stress (mental state, financial state, relationships), exercise, blood sugar, blood pressure. Get healthy.
Then add on external solutions that will support protection (sunscreen, hats) and reversing issues like discolouration, blemishes, wrinkles, etc. (retinoids, exfoliants, facials, botox).
Solve 1 thing a time. Just because you can add more products, doesn’t mean you should or that its working.
A recent book I read, had the comment (I am paraphrasing), “Delete, delete, delete and then add back. If you don’t bring back 10% of what you deleted, you haven’t deleted enough.”
✌️