Transcriber: A Chuang
Reviewer: Berat Güven I've spent most of my life
trying really hard to succeed. When I was in high school, I pushed myself to win
every academic award that I could. When I got to university, I pushed myself to get straight A's
in all my classes. I ended up spending 10 years in university
and got my PhD in psychology. From there I pushed myself
to succeed in the corporate world, and then I pushed myself
to be successful as an entrepreneur. I eventually ended up getting a job
at Harvard Medical School, which is one of the top academic
institutions in the world. And by this point, I had won a lot of
scholarships and awards. I was reasonably successful, and there were many people
who were quite proud of me, but I still wasn't happy. So for example, when I was in my 20s, on the outside, I looked like a thriving young woman
who was doing well academically and who had an active social life. But inside, I was struggling with crippling
self-doubt and perfectionism. I ended up spending six years
on antidepressants and many hours in therapy. Now, I eventually managed
to get off the antidepressants, and I got into things like yoga
and meditation and personal development, and I started to make my health
and my well-being my number one priority. But still, there was
something inside of me that kept pushing me to strive
and to achieve and to succeed. And I eventually realized
that I had become an achievement addict. So I had become addicted
to the attention and the approval that often come along
with being successful. And so what I would do
is I would get into this pattern where I would overwork towards some goal, I would burn out, then I would maybe take
a little bit of time to recuperate, and then I would start
overworking again. And I would go through this pattern
over and over and over. So this cycle might
sound familiar to some of you. You know, these days,
when you ask someone "How are you?" the most common response
tends to be "Busy." So we wear our busyness
like a badge of honor, as if we don't feel like
we're worthwhile human beings unless we're incredibly busy
doing something. But all this busyness is coming at a cost, and the cost is our health
and our well-being. So a question that I've been
working with in my own life both personally and professionally
over the last few years is, What if there was another way? So, what if we could continue
to be productive members of society without destroying our health
and our well-being in the process? And might it even be possible
to achieve more by doing less? Now, I want to make it clear
from the very beginning that I'm not advocating that we not try. Life involves effort, and I get that. If we didn't exert
any effort in our lives, we probably wouldn't brush our teeth, or feed ourselves, or even leave the house. So obviously, we need
to engage in some effort, but the trick seems to be
learning how to balance effort with ease. And there are two different
types of effort that I believe we can
engage in in our lives. And the first type is something
that I like to call "upstream effort." So when we're engaged in upstream effort, it feels like we're paddling a boat
upstream against the current of the water. So it feels like
you're trying really hard, you're pushing, you're striving, you're maybe burning out, your health and well-being
are maybe suffering, and even though
you're engaged in all this effort, it doesn't really feel like
you're getting anywhere. Now, upstream effort is the type of effort
that I believe most of us are engaged in on a regular basis. And in fact, society even encourages
and rewards upstream effort. So from a young age, many of us are taught
to believe statements like "Nothing in life comes easy" and "If it was easy,
everyone would do it" and "You have to fight really hard
to make it in the world." So most of us are familiar
with this type of effort. But there's another type of effort
we can engage in, and I call this one
"downstream effort." So when we're engaged
in downstream effort, we're still engaged in effort,
we're still trying, we're rowing a boat, but we're paddling that boat downstream
with the current of the water, or with the flow of life, if you will. So we have a goal,
but we have a loose grip, or loose attachment to that goal, and we're more focused on the process or the journey
of getting towards that goal. Now, in the same way
that there are different types of effort, there are also different types of success. So, many of us are taught to believe
that success means having a lot of money or a nice car or a big house. And there's not necessarily
anything wrong with these things. It's just that we each need to define
what authentic success means for us. So for you, authentic success
might mean having a lot of money or it might mean improving
your social relationships or it might mean improving your health. So we each need to define
what authentic success means for us because this helps us
make decisions in our lives that guide us in the direction
of downstream effort. And so the question then becomes, you know, "How do we enhance
downstream effort in order to reach authentic goals?" because when I talk about the idea
of achieving more by doing less, what I'm really referring to here is enhancing downstream
effort in our lives in order to reach authentic goals. But how do we do this? There are a few different things
that we can do, and the first thing is that
we need to engage in some inner work in order to begin to cultivate
downstream effort in our lives. So one type of inner work that we can do is we can begin to identify
what we value in life. Now, values are abstract goals or ideals
that can be difficult to define, but there's things like freedom, authenticity, joy, happiness, stability. And we need to identify what we value because these values
then serve as a North Star or a compass to help guide us in the direction of
downstream effort in our lives. Another type of inner work that we can do is we need to identify
how we want to feel every day. Now, Doug Newberg is a researcher
and performance coach from the University of Virginia. And he developed
a theory that he calls the Resonance Performance Model. And he developed this theory
based on interviews that he conducted
with hundreds of top performers from a variety of different areas of life, so for example, medicine, sport,
business, and music. And what he found is that these top performers
had very specific ideas about how they wanted to feel every day. So, yes, they had a goal. They might have wanted to win
a gold medal or a Grammy, but they were more focused on
the process of getting towards that goal than the actual goal itself. Another thing that Newburg found
is that these top performers - it's very important - when they bumped up against obstacles
towards their goals, they didn't try harder. So they didn't exert more effort. Instead, they took some time off
for personal reflection and reminded themselves
of how they wanted to feel every day. Newburg referred to this as "their dream." So reminding themselves of their dream then motivated them
to continue towards their goals. So after we've done this inner work of identifying how we want to feel
and what we value, our job is then to bring
this inner work out into the world. So there's research suggesting
that authenticity has two components: an internal component
and an external component. So internally, we need to unapologetically
own our values and our feelings, and then externally, we need to act on those values
and feelings in the real world. So in other words, we need to start making
authentic life decisions. So you might choose a particular job
or a relationship or life path based on what's true
and authentic for you. And this might sound
relatively straightforward, you know, you just make life decisions
based on what's important to you and then you live your life in that way. But in actuality, sometimes
our authentic life choices can go against what society
or our friends or our colleagues or our family think we should be doing. So for example, when I was working
at Harvard Medical School, after a while of working there, I started to realize that that job
was no longer honoring what I valued, and I was no longer feeling
how I wanted to feel every day. And so I made the very difficult
but authentic decision to quit my job at Harvard. And I ended up living in a cabin
in the woods for two months and then I moved to Europe. Now, this was not
an easy decision to make. There were people in my life
who believed I was making a mistake, professionally, by quitting Harvard, but it was a decision that was true
and authentic for me. So our authentic life choices,
they won't always be easy, but they'll always be worth it
because they help us live with integrity. And so after we've made
these authentic life decisions, our job is then to use discernment
to evaluate the results of our decisions. So in other words,
we evaluate which path we're on. We can ask ourselves, "Has this decision resulted in
me moving upstream or am I moving downstream?" And there are a few hints
that we can use in order to figure out whether we're engaged
in downstream effort. And the first of these is that
when we're engaged in downstream effort, I believe we're more likely
to experience something called "psychological flow." And when we're experiencing
psychological flow - some of you might have
experienced it before; we sometimes experience it when we're engaged in things
like music or art - when we're engaged in psychological flow, we're so absorbed
and engaged in what we're doing that time seems to get distorted, so time might feel like
it speeds up or slows down; you might not notice time going by. It can be very difficult to distract you
from what you're doing, the telephone could ring
and you might not even notice it, and you might even be so absorbed
and engaged in what you're doing that you become almost one
with the activity. So for example, in the moments before an athlete
scores an incredible goal, they might feel like
time slows down for them, they might not hear
the audience around them, and they might feel like
their body moves almost effortlessly in the service of scoring that goal. And in my opinion, psychological flow is actually
the epitome of downstream effort because we're trying
but it doesn't feel like we're trying. Now, another hint that you can use to find out if you're engaged
in downstream effort is that sometimes synchronicity might be more likely
to pop up in your life. So the perfect people,
places, or opportunities might arise for you without feeling like
you had to engage in that much effort in order to make those things happen. So if you're engaged in downstream effort, the idea is to stay on that path because authentic success
is likely to follow. Now, notice I use the word
"authentic success" here, so your success might not look successful
to the people around you, but it will feel successful
for you internally. So for example, someone who gets a divorce after spending years
in an inauthentic marriage, their life might not look
very successful on the outside. So they might lose their home, they might lose some access
to their children, they might lose some income. However, their decision and their life
will feel authentic for them. Now, if, on the other hand,
you engage in an authentic life decision, and it feels like you're engaged
in upstream effort, before you start trying harder, there are two questions
that you can ask yourself. The first question is, "Is this a time in my life
when upstream effort is necessary?" So there are some times in our lives when we do just have to
put in some extra hours, put in some time, and feel
kind of like we're trying very hard. So for example, if you're trying
to get your Master's or your PhD, sometimes that process
can feel like a slog, it can feel like a lot of effort, but if that Master's or PhD
is an authentic life goal for you, then you can remind yourself
of your motivations for pursuing that degree, and that can then
motivate you to continue. Now, also another question
you can ask yourself if it feels like you're engaged
in upstream effort is, Have my values changed? So there are times
when we make a decision in our lives based on certain values, but then those values change over time. So for example, if when you first finished university, you got a job so that you could get
some financial stability in your life. But maybe three or five years later, financial stability is no longer
something that is as important to you. That job might start to feel upstream
because it no longer reflects your values. In these situations, we need to either quit or let go of or the very least, significantly
alter the path that we're on so that we can course correct and bring ourselves in the direction
of downstream effort in our lives. So I believe that there are many times
when we're engaged in upstream effort when we actually need to quit
or let go of something so that we can make room
for downstream effort. And so my main point here
is not that we stop trying. It's that you stop trying so hard
at things that don't matter to you and start trying at things that do. Because when we engage
in effort towards goals that are personally meaningful for us, our trying doesn't feel like trying, and our success feels successful regardless of what it looks like
to people on the outside. Now, this might sound
relatively straightforward; however, very few of us
are actually living this way. So, many of us exert
enormous amounts of effort towards goals that are not actually
personally meaningful. And even though the idea
of downstream effort might sound a little bit counterintuitive, I believe many of us really resonate
with the idea of slowing down and exerting a different kind
of effort in our lives. And in fact, many of the world's
great wisdom traditions actually emphasize similar concepts,
like practicing mindfulness, non-attachment, and emphasizing
being over doing. So for example, in Taoism,
there's a term called "wu wei," which refers to a form
of effortless effort. And Lao Tzu, a Chinese philosopher, who's considered to be
the founder of Taoism, wrote: "Search your heart and see
the way to do is to be." And so I'll admit that I don't have this process
completely figured out, and my inner achievement
addict is still alive and well and comes to visit me quite often, but when she does, I try to remind myself
of some of the ideas and concepts that I've talked about today
in order to do that course correction, to bring myself in the direction
of downstream effort in my life. And so I would encourage all of you to take a good hard look
at your own inner achievement addict, and ask yourself why you're doing
what you're doing. What's motivating you? Are you motivated by something
that's true and authentic for you, or are you motivated
by something that's external to you? And we might ask
"Well, why is this important?" Well, I believe it's important
because your health, your well-being, and your authenticity are more important
than any job, any promotion, any salary, any degree, or frankly, anyone else's opinion of you. And when we get this, when we truly embody it
and start living it, then we really can begin
to achieve more by doing less. Thank you. (Applause)
