The Effort Paradox 🤔 (explained)

If you have an early flight in the morning and you know you need to sleep, it might cause you to try to fall asleep. Now, the more you try, the more alert your brain gets, which keeps you awake. But if you just pretend you're already sleeping, close your eyes, slow your breathing, lie still, eventually

you would actually drift off. And this is how we normally fall asleep, by pretending we already are. Now, let's say you want to get fit. If you keep telling yourself, "I need to get fit," it feels like a chore. You'll start and stop over and over. But if you just pretend you're already a fit person,

well, you'll start making the choices a fit person makes. You'll pick the water over the soda. You'll go for the walk instead of scrolling. Not because you're forcing yourself, but because that's just what a fit person does. And if you pretend long enough, well, it might just stop being pretend.