All too often we try to push, pull, outline and control our ideas instead of letting them grow organically. The creative process is a process of surrender, not control. Mystery is at the heart of creativity. That, and surprise. End quote.

We often experience our creativity blooming when we're not asking for it, for example, during a relaxing moment in the shower, during a forest walk, and just before bed.

During those moments when we have ceased caring about it, the idea we were looking for comes forward spontaneously.

The ancient Taoists observed that when we're too occupied with the outcome, we're likely to sabotage our performance.

The story in the Taoist scripture Zhuangzi about the nervous archer who shot perfectly during practice but couldn't perform during a tournament when competing for a prize shows how caring too much about the result works against us.

When we care too much about the outcome, whatever we're doing, we feel tense.

Even though we're usually perfectly able to perform the task, a sense of emergency is involved.

Our minds are occupied with the future and may even dwell in the past, contemplating, for example, past mistakes. We're not present.

We might believe that the more we worry about the task and its consequence, the more control we gain and the more chance we have to succeed.

But the opposite is true; the more we worry, the more we try to control, the more likely our performances will suffer.

Here's where the Law of Reverse Effect comes to fruition again: the more we care about achieving success, the more it eludes us.

When we care too much about the outcome, we will likely push ourselves in ways that eventually obstruct our progress.

The ancient Taoists knew how people could stand in their own way when striving to achieve something. Instead of striving, they proposed 'wu wei' or 'effortless action.'

Athlete Christopher Bergland explains in an article in Psychology Today how the state of optimal performance, also known as "the zone," paradoxically emerges when we don't strive for it.

I quote: It may seem counterintuitive, but a non-striving mindset (also known as wu-wei) increases an athlete's chances of getting "in the zone," performing effortlessly, and winning.

The paradox of wu-wei is that striving less—not trying harder to win at all costs—often generates more success. End quote.

When examining the mental state of effortless action, or being "in the zone," we discover that this state of being (or state of doing, for that matter) is characterized by a lack of discursive thoughts about the past and the future.

Even though Wu-wei most likely leads to 'something' we call results, these results are not the focus.

The desired results may be in the back of our minds, but our attention is immersed in the task at hand.

The task even ceases to be a task, as if the pianist becomes the musical piece, the writer becomes the novel, and the soccer player becomes the game.

When there's no worry about one's future achievements or rumination about one's failures in the past, then one's performance won't be disturbed by these thoughts, which, so it seems, enhances it.

Hence, we could say that once we stop caring, results come, as in the mental and physical obstacles we lay in place for ourselves as a consequence of "caring" about the outcome disappear;

they don't obstruct pure and responsive action in the present, meaning, action that effortlessly interplays with present circumstances.

For example, we must be responsive to our environment to drive a car. Everything that happens in the environment is unprecedented and uniquely belongs to that specific moment.

There are patterns and generalizations, of course, but when we look at the details, then what's happening on a particular highway, the cars present,

the people in those cars, what these people do and think, and how they react, is a unique, unprecedented symphony that we cannot cognitively predict.

We can only rely on our driving skills and ability to respond well to everything that happens.

But instead, our minds tend to try to control the future by creating detailed predictions and then constantly repeating these fantasies and our responses to them.

But when the moment we've prepared ourselves for arrives, we find out that our detailed blueprints have become pretty useless.

Moreover, all these thoughts and mental preparations prevent us from responding to what's actually happening.

However, if we let go of this firewall of thoughts, we create space to let the environment come in, so we can respond to what happens instead of what we think would happen.

Philosopher Dr. Woei-Lien Chong emphasizes the importance of openness regarding wu wei, saying: No matter if it's about politics, governance, diplomacy, or any other activity:

what Zhuangzi calls wu-wei is this ultimate receptive and responsive way of action, from a crystal clear openness in yourself, one with the breathing of the cosmos. End quote.

Whether we look at the mental control paradox or the Taoist idea of wu wei, these concepts show how our own thoughts can stand in our way.

The more we care about something, the more we tend to worry and ruminate about it, and the more these thoughts obstruct the ability to act in ways that eventually lead to success, which corresponds with the Law of Reverse Effect.

By letting go of worrying about the outcome, it's more likely that we get the outcome we desire.

Results don't come by repeatedly thinking about them or desiring them fiercely; they come through actions.

And the more we let ourselves be carried away by the desired results, the less we tend to act in ways that contribute to achieving them.

Caring too much about the results makes the archer in Zhuangzi's story tremble, a soccer player miss a penalty, and a writer unable to write. Thank you for watching.