Giving 110% May Be Trying Too Hard
John Munro
How often do you hear the phrase, “Give it 100%” or “110%?” Our culture places a lot of emphasis on effort. We often go about our lives trying very hard to achieve all manner of goals and objectives. We put great expectations on ourselves to succeed and achieve and yet for many of us all this effort adds up to very little actual progress. Is it possible that all this effort is actually holding us back?
Let’s look a little closer at the statement “give 100%.” Giving 100% is a good thing isn’t it? It means we have
given our all to something, held nothing back, achieved the best possible results or does it?
When an executive gives Ô100% to his job, working long hours, not taking breaks, what happens? They may succeed in their career in the short term, but their personal and family relationships will deteriorate. If they keep this up they will have a much shorter career than they otherwise might have as their health will also suffer. Have they really succeeded?
When an athlete gives 100% at all their training sessions, what happens? They may initially make some impressive gains in performance and then often they will have injuries or suffer recurring illness due to overtraining. They find that their progress is hampered and rather than succeeding at their sport they may eventually be forced to give it up.
Physically whenever we exert ourselves to 100% of our capacity we actually put ourselves in real danger. At 100% of our capacity it only takes the slightest unexpected occurrence to throw things completely out of kilter. A rubber band stretched to 100% of its possible length will snap with the slightest bump. The same goes for muscles at 100% of load and nerves at 100% stimulation. Unconsciously we know this and so we develop safety mechanisms to protect ourselves from being damaged by overexertion. If
our ligaments are not strong enough to support our limbs in an extended position, the muscles will tighten up to restrict the range of motion and prevent dislocation of the joint. If we attempt to lift a load which our body thinks is too heavy and may tear the muscles involved, the nerves activating the muscles will actually just switch off, causing us to drop the load.These are a couple of physical examples of safety mechanisms. We also develop these safety mechanisms in other areas of our lives. If we are making ourselves too busy we will often get a cold or other minor illness so that we HAVE to take some time out.
Whenever we begin to exert ourselves too hard we start to run into these safety mechanisms. If we do not pay attention to the message the safety mechanisms are sending us, we will keep on running into them, and eventually the mechanisms will start kicking in earlier and earlier. Our muscles will get tighter and tighter, we will get sick more often and easily. In the end it may seem like we are getting nowhere, or worse, going backwards.
So is it not good to exert ourselves; to put effort into accomplishing the things we want in life? Of course it is good, but the idea of giving 100% all the time is simply
counterproductive.
A Better Way The Taoists (Taoism is an ancient branch of Chinese philosophy) have a maxim which states that we should only ever exert ourselves 60%. Our modern understanding of human physiology has some striking parallels. Muscles put out the most force at about 60% of their maximum speed of contraction. Muscles are also strongest at about 60% of maximum length.
Have you ever watched an elite athlete at the top of their game? Their movements seem almost effortless, even while they are doing things no-one else on the planet can do. They have mastered relaxed exertion whereby putting out just the right amount of effort, they actually accomplish the most. They make it look effortless, and in a sense it is, mentally and physically they are relaxed and focused on their goal, they call this being in The Zone. But they have