We tend to believe that every effort brings a reward and that if you want something with all your strength you can achieve it. However, this mentality is susceptible to falling into what is considered toxic positivity and, furthermore, brings us closer to the jaws of the law of inverse or inverted effort.
The law of inverse effort was developed by British philosopher Alan Watts and explains why sometimes, the more you want something, the more you fight for it, the further you push it away from you. This applies to professional and academic achievements, as well as sports and even personal relationships as well.
The Rincón de la Psicología blog begins by explaining what the law of inverse effort or the law of retrocession consists of with the following quote from Alan Watts: “If you don’t know how to swim and you fall into the water and desperately try to stay afloat, full of anguish, With all the natural fear you have for not knowing how to swim, the more you move and shake, the deeper you will sink and the faster. The theory of invested effort is simply to relax, to think that if you are calm and fill your lungs with air, that will make you float and you will not drown.”
We live in the era of effort culture, in which the drive to achieve something is applauded, while not fighting for what we desire is considered apathetic or mediocre. However, from the aforementioned blog they emphasize that “overexcitement, agitation and haste are not usually good advisors, much less in those situations that demand reflection, equanimity and time.”
This is because, when we become stubborn and act impulsively, we do not reach the level of lucidity necessary to understand our context, our options and how we should act. “When we become obsessed with a goal or insist on following a path, we can waste a large amount of energy. In these situations, stubbornness prevents us from seeing and taking advantage of other opportunities,” they add from Rincón de la Psicología.
In this regard, the pressure we feel from not achieving what we want increases our stress even more, which hinders our path. As examples, in the blog they appeal to insomnia, how it is increasingly difficult for us to fall asleep the more we think about how to go back to sleep. Or how we can push away someone we love if we pressure or overwhelm them.
They emphasize from the blog that the law of inverse effort should serve as motivation for us to stop along the way to evaluate the circumstances and assume the best possible attitude, both for our well-being and for the achievement of our goals. “The law of inverse effort tells us that it is of little value to achieve what we want if we lose mental balance or health along the way,” they argue.
In conclusion, we must be aware that sometimes we cannot swim against the current. As well as internalizing that serenity and temperance are allies when it comes to acting.