The Paradox of Self-Improvement

I’ve been wondering recently why it’s so hard to improve ourselves. Why do we struggle to do the things we know we should do? And also why we do things all the time, that we know are not good for us.

You know, when we worry and stress up too much for our own good. Tense up although we need to relax more than ever. Distract ourselves when all we need is more calm in our minds. Eating and drinking things we know should be left untouched.

But why is it so hard to do the workout? Why is it so hard to sit down and record this video we have been procrastinating on for days? Why is it so hard to be consistent with pretty much anything we begin with nowadays?

Maybe we aren’t trying enough. We don’t think we are capable of doing great things or don’t even think it’s worth trying. Could everything we want or don’t want in our lives, all depend on us trying harder?

Or maybe, just maybe, could it be.. that we are trying too much?

The backwards law

Then I remembered a principle, coined by the philosopher Alan Watts but popularized by Mark Manson, called the backwards law. It states that in order to get anything you want, you need to do the opposite to get there.