The Law of Reverse Effort
The 20th-century French psychologist Émile Coué wrote, “When the will and the imagination are in conflict, the imagination always wins, without any exception.” In situations involving both “the will” (the conscious, deliberate, forcefully determined attempts to make something happen) and “the imagination” (the thoughts, beliefs, emotions, fears, images operating beneath awareness), Coué discovered, the imagination wins. The more you try to fall asleep (will), the more you subconsciously worry about not sleeping (imagination), the harder it is to fall asleep. The more you try to suppress laughter in an inappropriate situation (will), the funnier you find the scenario (imagination), the harder it becomes to stop laughing. In such situations, Coué writes, “not only does one not obtain what one wants, but exactly the reverse is brought about.” This phenomenon became known as the “law of reversed effort” (one of Coué’s student’s wrote, “Coué’s most original contribution, his stroke of genius, was his discovery of the law of reversed effort). The law of reverse effort “explains why we get such unsatisfactory results when we aim at the reeducation of the will,” Coué wrote. “What we have to work for is the education of the imagination.” The law of reverse effort and the education or reeducation of the imagination—that’s the theme of this SIX at 6…
I Wasn’t Running Around Asking People…
A 12-year-old aspiring composer once asked Mozart, “How do I write a symphony?” Mozart replied, “Go to music college, study the works of great composers, start by writing simpler compositions, and eventually you will write a symphony.” The boy says, “But you were writing symphonies at the age of 10.” “Yes,” Mozart replied, “but I wasn’t running around asking people how to write symphonies.”
You Can’t Live In The House Because You Sit Around Guarding It
At the age of 14, Rodney Mullen won his first freestyle world skateboard championship. He won 34 of his next 35 contests. On what is still the most successful competitive run in the history of the sport, Rodney quit competing in contests. “Winning a contest felt good the first time,” he said. “After that, you are protecting. There is no gratification in winning, there is only upholding something so that you don’t lose it. And it is staggering. It usurps the joy of it. It’s like the Kafka short story: you build something, but you can’t live in the house because you sit around guarding it. I looked at contests like that. It militated against progression. It forced me into a pattern of consistency—do this, best-in-show, again and again and again and again.” After he quit competing in freestyle, Rodney shifted into street skating, a skateboarding discipline which focuses on flat-ground tricks and maneuvers using features like stairs, handrails, ledges, curbs, benches, and other architectural elements found in urban environments. Freed from the pressures of protecting and guarding, Rodney went on to enjoy a period of prolific creativity, inventing many of the tricks now fundamental to modern skateboarding: the flat-ground Ollie, kick-flip, heel-flip, and on and on. As a result, Rodney is today known as the “Godfather of modern street skating.”
You Need To Change The Story Yourself
At both the 1988 & 1992 Olympics, speed skater Dan Jansen was the favorite to win the 500- & 1,000-meter races. He didn’t medal in either event at either Olympics. The media was brutal: “Jansen Chokes Again.” “Greatest Choke in Sports History.” “The Buffalo Bills of speed skating.” His agent reached out to performance psychologist Dr. Jim Loehr for help. During their first meeting, Loehr learned that Jansen hated the 1,000-meter event. “He felt like he was a fast muscle twitch kind of a guy,” Loehr explains. “He thought of himself as a sprinter. So he loved the 500 and hated the 1,000.” Loehr attended Jansen’s training sessions, and after watching Dan skate over and over and over again, he became convinced that Dan’s best shot at winning a gold medal was not in the 500, but in the 1,000. “You need to change your mindset,” Loehr told Jansen. “You need to change the story you tell yourself about the 1,000. If you change that story, I believe it can change your life.” Jansen kept a daily training log—“From now on,” Loehr told him, “on the top of your training log, I want you to write, ‘I love the 1,000.’” So for 2 years, at the top of his training log, Jansen wrote, “I love the 1,000.” Before the 1994 Winter Olympics in Lillehammer, Jansen confessed to Loehr, “You know, I’m actually starting to like the 1,000. I think I might even like the 1,000 better than the 500.” At the games in Lillehammer, in the 500, Jansen slipped and finished 8th. Before the 1,000 (four days later)—which Jansen knew would be the last time he ever skated competitively—“We created a mindset,” Loehr said, “and the mindset we created was—instead of a gold medal or a world record or anything else—think about what a gift the sport of speed skating has been to you. Think about the joy it’s brought you.” With that mindset, Jansen not only won his first Olympic gold medal, he set a new world record time in the 1,000. “When I stopped thinking so much about a gold medal,” Jansen said, paradoxically, “I won a gold medal.”
Make It During The Day. Collect It At Night
“Chris Rock had one of the greatest lines I’ve ever heard about how to be a professional comedian,” Jerry Seinfeld said. A young, struggling comedian asked Chris for advice. When Chris asked the kid how he spent his time, the kid revealed that he spent it aimlessly. He scrolled social media, watched comedian specials, and socialized with some other comedians before doing open mics at various comedy clubs every night. Chris told him that the real work of a comedian happens during the day, writing and crafting material. “During the day is when you make the money,” Chris told the kid. When Chris told Seinfeld about this, Seinfeld added, “Yeah, we collect the money at night, but we make it during the day. That should be the code. You make money during the day, you collect it at night.”
The Art of War
In The Art of War, Sun Tzu says, “for should the enemy strengthen his van, he will weaken his rear; should he strengthen his rear, he will weaken his van; should he strengthen his left, he will weaken his right; should he strengthen his right, he will weaken his left. If he sends reinforcements everywhere, he will everywhere be weak.” Should you be thinking about how to write symphonies, you will not be writing symphonies. Should you be thinking about protecting, you will not be progressing. Should you think too much about winning, you will lose. Should you not make it during the day, you will not collect it at night. When the will and the imagination are at war, the imagination always wins.