In Martial Arts, one of the goals is to learn how to maximize the creation of power while minimizing the expenditure of energy.
Essentially, it’s the practice of learning how to fully press the “gas pedal” while fully releasing the “brake pedal.”
Pressing the gas and brake pedal at the same time is wildly inefficient for driving. And so is it for moving the body. Yet, this is the default when it comes to moving the body with any degree of intensity.
Both the protagonist and antagonist muscle groups tense which, in effect, slows down the attempt to speed up all at once.
…And wastes a bunch of energy in the process.
The art then becomes learning how to selectively tense certain muscles while selective relaxing others in real time. And the challenge, of course, is that there isn’t only one gas and one brake pedal—there are hundreds.
And so it is for life.
The question to consider is this: in each task that you’re trying to complete, what resistance could you simultaneously reduce?
Sometimes we focus so much on the doing that we forget about the un-doing. Because while a 10% increase in speed for “doing” is good, a 20% decrease in resistance is better.
And this isn’t a question that’s asked and answered only once—it’s an ongoing awareness.
We’ll never get this perfect—for our bodies or for life. But, progress—any progress—makes the effort undoubtedly worth it.
P.s. This became the introduction for: 23 Greg McKeown Quotes from Essentialism and How To Live Better Via Less