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Today’s post strives to dismantle the idea that success can only come through relentless hard work. It examines how intentional fun and rest can drive productivity and peak performance.
Effortless
Greg McKeown is a leadership strategist and author whose content often revolves around minimalism. He’s best known for his two national best-sellers, Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less and Effortless: Make It Easier to Do What Matters Most.
I wish I could say I’ve read both, let alone even one, of his books. Alas, they are on my future reading list. However, I’ve heard him speak on a few podcasts and subsequently have dug into some of his other resources and was immediately drawn to his message.
Much of this post will reference content from his latest book Effortless as presented on these various podcast appearances.
Busyness As Usual
We think anything worth getting is worth working for no matter the cost. Success can only be had from working hard and always powering through.
Sound familiar?
Do you wear your busyness as a badge of honor? Some of you may even consider your burnout a badge of honor as it proves that you’ve worked hard—that you’ve made a sacrifice for a noble cause.
Obviously, putting in the effort and striving towards your goals is a positive move. But too much ongoing effort at the expense of your well-being is toxic.
There’s a law of diminishing returns beyond which you’re really only dealing with degrees of burnout.
What's the Alternative?
So if relentless, exhausting burnout at all costs does not mean you’ve made it (leading the witness, your honor), then what does?
How about achieving your goals effortlessly? Sounds ridiculous and naive, doesn’t it?
Well, what if you could get closer to that ideal?
Think of lifting weights. If you use poor technique or push yourself too hard lifting, you may injure yourself. But if you practice proper form and technique, then you can do this …
Actually, I was going to say you can then avoid injury and make more progress in your strength training endeavors.
Higher performance can be had not by pushing harder but by reducing resistance—by finding a way to be at ease while you perform so you can perform at your highest potential for longer.
You do so by not forcing anything—by learning how to remove the friction so you can perform more effortlessly.
Friction Reduction in Action
Several personal examples came to mind:
1. When I took up tennis in high school, I struggled with serving. One of my coaches astutely observed that my issue was the speed at which I was swinging—it was too slow. I interpreted this to mean I had to swing harder because by swinging harder I would surely speed up my motion, right?
Wrong.
In trying to swing harder I was tensing up tightly and my serve worsened, I was simply hitting balls into the net, now only harder.
In order to correct this, I had to loosen up my swing to get the racquet to strike the ball a few milliseconds earlier for a better service.
I’m not gonna lie: it took me several days to even understand that faster didn’t mean harder. But when it clicked, serving became easier—more effortless.
2. As a drummer, I love blazing fast rolls—rapid hits in quick succession—especially moving around the various drums. It might seem counterintuitive, but tearing around the kit generally requires one to be relaxed and using the smallest motions.
My drumming idol, one Jimmy Chamberlin most famously of the Smashing Pumpkins, once said something to the effect of the best drummers look so relaxed while playing, it’s like they’re sitting on the john reading a newspaper.
While I’m not sure which newspaper he was referencing that one could read appearing relaxed without thinking modern society was ending, I have found that advice incredibly helpful.
By relaxing my entire body, I can move so much more efficiently and fluidly around my drum set.
My chops are still nowhere up to spiff compared to Chamberlin’s, so I’ll showcase his talent to demonstrate this point:
Notice how relaxed his fingers and arms are.
The Effortless State
By now you’re considering the merits of this post’s thesis. Maybe you’re even considering examples in your own life where easing up propelled you forward.
The next logical question is how to do this.
Thankfully, McKeown offers a multi-part framework, of which the first portion will be examined here.
McKeown encourages his readers to find their effortless state by creating an environment in which focusing on what matters the most comes easily.
He offers five strategies to accomplish this:
1. Invert
Invert means flipping around the overt or subconscious questions we ask ourselves.
Challenge the assumptions that the “right way” must be the hard way and that an easy way must be a cop-out.
From coaching, I’ve learned that our brains love answering questions. Too much of the time we ask our brain negatively-oriented questions which only leads to negative responses.
Poor inputs lead to poor outputs. Said less eloquently: crap in equals crap out.
So ask yourself higher quality questions that are positively framed and you’ll prompt your brain to generate a positive response.
Ask, “How can this be easy?” instead of the usual, “why is this so hard?”
This is a much more useful question for getting the creative juices going and harnessing your brain’s problem-solving power.
2. Enjoy
Next, look at pairing the most essential activities with the most fun ones.
You may have a task to get done (the what) but you can shape the ritual (the how) used to complete that task.
Develop rituals that are enjoyable and meaningful to you to lighten the doing of the tasks.
I look at my three-year-old’s soccer program and marvel at how they’ve nailed this.
They make everything a game where the learning of a soccer skill is almost an afterthought. For example, learning to dribble the ball involves little kicks of the ball so as not to wake the sleeping monster they must all sneak past. The kids love the challenge and thrill of the game.
It seems so simple because it is, yet it’s brilliant.
3. Release
Release is all about letting go of emotional burdens that don’t serve you.
We underestimate the negative toll these have on us, but they can really sap us of our energy and bandwidth.
It’s like relying on bad fuel—it can only get us so far before it mucks up the works. I’m clearly not a car guy as I think I just bungled two different automotive analogies, but you get the point!
For me, one area this shows up in is a general discontent with the state of our healthcare system. It’s so easy to slip into negativity around the dysfunction that one can be paralyzed by its sheer magnitude.
But how does that help me serve the patient in front of me or close a chart?
How does that help me advocate for physicians and strive to improve our lot and the system at large?
It doesn’t.
McKeown says: “When you focus on what you lack, you lose what you have. When you focus on what you have, you get what you lack.”
Each time you complain about something try to offer up something you’re grateful for (ideally, about that same thing).
Recognize how much the grudges you hold drain you, and ask if they’re serving you or hindering you.
Remember: just let it go.
No, wait! Please don’t—
(sigh)
4. Rest
This is my favorite, but admittedly the one I struggle with the most.
Discover the art of doing…nothing!
We are creatures of rhythms, not machines. Peak performance requires periods of intensity and periods of rest. Moreover, even machines need breaks.
Pushing harder when we should be resting can have deleterious effects, as I mentioned in the weight-lifting example offered earlier.
Determine what key objectives or tasks you’d like to complete on a given day and give yourself permission to ease up or stop after you’ve accomplished them.
Plan out reward time throughout with things that bring you joy. Heck, take a nap!
5. Notice
Finally, learn to be present in the moment, not ruminating on the past or worrying about the future.
Honor the time you set aside to do something by spending all the time working on it.
It matters not whether you finish it, but only that you were true to your word and yourself in honoring this commitment you made.
Clear physical clutter to clear mental clutter. Be intentional—focus on the truly important. The rest is a distraction.
If some distraction tries to pull you away, then write it down and tell yourself you’ll revisit it in 10 minutes. Chances are by then the urge will have subsided and you’ll keep on track.
Getting Meta
Interestingly, I had a tough time starting this post.
But as I dropped the burden of needing to “get it done,” considered how it could be fun to write on this topic (e.g., adding personal examples, and, of course, GIFs), and took breaks by watching episodes of Ted Lasso with my wife, it became so much more effortless.
Reducing friction can help you achieve the same or greater more easily while enjoying the process more.
Sometimes the easy way is the best way. How can you make the right choice the easiest?
How can you intentionally foster an environment conducive to increased performance by adopting some of the concepts and tactics described here?
How can you make things more effortless?
Do you have examples where working less hard led to a better outcome? Let me know in the comments section below.
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