Isn't making no effort a BAD thing?

You've always been told that making no effort is bad, right? Perhaps at school you got a grade for 'effort' and were berated by teachers and parents for being lazy.

You'll never make anything of yourself if you don't put in more effort.

There's no such thing as a free lunch.

We've all heard things like this a million times.

But we should distinguish between effortlessness and doing nothing or being lazy. If you don't exercise because you can't be bothered, or if you eat junk food because it's to much effort to cook something healthy, or if you don't revise for your exam because it's too much trouble, then of course you're heading for an impoverished life.

But there is a certain way of doing things - or rather a certain way of getting things done - by which an excellent result is achieved with the expenditure of very little energy. It sounds wrong, counterintuitive - but it just means 'going with the flow.' I remember my dad telling me how to saw a piece of wood: he said you had to follow the wood's natural grain, if possible, and then let the saw do the work - don't push and pull too hard, just hold loosely and let the saw be your guide, almost as if the saw is an extension of your arm. It's like water or electricity moving - it travels easily and effortlessly, always finding the easiest route, the path of least resistance - there is motion, there is action, but it is effortless motion, and it is powerful motion because energy is not being used to overcome.

The ancient Chinese philosophy of Wu Wei is the best description of this kind of 'achievement without effort.' An interesting and very accessible introduction to this idea, along with many others which will crop up time and again in this blog, are contained in Benjaminn Hoff's excellent book, The Tao of Pooh.


"Just How do you do it, Pooh?"
"Do What?" asked Pooh.
"Become so Effortless."
"I don't do much of anything," he said.
"But all those things of yours get done."
"They just sort of happen," he said"