Just Tao It, Chapter 48: Less is More (Apparently) Effort & Ease (Redux)

See the Series Introduction for Just Tao It, Part I: HERE
See the Just Tao It Series Introduction Tao/It on-ramp, PART II: HERE
See Just Tao It, Chapter 1: HERE

From my interpretation of the Tao Te Ching, Chapter 48 (Unpublished):

Being in learning each day,
There is accumulation.
Being in It each day,
There is distribution.

In letting go,
More can show.
More is done,
With less begun.

Without interruption
It moves in motion.
Harmony grows,
And the whole thing flows.

Forcing less.
More becomes.

—

I have spent much of my life believing that if something wasn’t working, the answer was simple. Push harder.

More effort. More urgency. More thinking. More fixing. More control. More work. More intensity.

That strategy produced meaningful accomplishments in my life. It also produced some equally meaningful messes.

Here’s the part that took me years to see: the behaviors that eventually cause the strain usually start out as things that genuinely work. A habit earns recognition. A coping strategy creates safety. A survival adaptation becomes identity. Until eventually it starts asking more than it gives.

For years I thought my problem involved effort management. The deeper issue involved identity attachment.

Effort had fused itself to the story I carried about who I was: reliable, capable, responsive, driven, helpful, productive, strong under pressure.

Most cultures reward those qualities aggressively. The same strengths that get you recognized start creating consequences you can’t see clearly, because from the outside they still look like virtues.

The issue rarely involves effort alone.

The issue involves overidentification with effort.

Brené Brown calls it what it is: identity sustains behavior long after logic stops mattering. Kegan and Lahey found the same pattern from a different angle: people resist change because some hidden commitment is protecting something that feels essential to who they are. Slowing down can trigger real anxiety, disproportionate to the behavior itself, because what’s being threatened is the self-story holding the behavior in place.

Modern culture exploits this same fusion at scale. Social media, productivity culture, politics, AI — nearly everything now rewards speed over wisdom. Once activation becomes identity, disengaging from it starts feeling like erasing yourself.

There’s another side to this, and I’ve lived it too. After periods of pushing too hard, withdrawal can start masquerading as wisdom. People call it a sustainable pace while disengaging from responsibilities that still need courage. Self-care becomes the justification for never landing anywhere.

Ease to the neglect of Effort creates drift just as surely as Effort to the neglect of Ease creates burnout. Both poles matter.

I’ve watched people force relationships until they broke, force organizations until they burned out, force certainty until they stopped learning, force productivity until their bodies made the decision for them. The compensations always arrive — sometimes gently, sometimes not.

The wisest people I know carry themselves differently. They still work hard. Still act decisively. But there’s less franticness underneath the movement. Less identity fused with the output itself. The energy feels steadier, almost spacious. The movement becomes less about proving worth and more about participating skillfully.

That’s the question this chapter never quite asks out loud, though it circles the whole way through: who am I, if I stop proving?

That’s part of what Lao Tzu was pointing toward in Chapter 48 all along.

Less forcing. More flow.

I still catch myself pushing harder than the moment requires. I notice it faster now. That’s most of the difference.

Here’s a Polarity Map to help see the pattern:

INVITATIONS:

If you want to take a quick self-assessment for Effort And Ease: CLICK HERE
NOTE: the results include Leveraging Action Steps and Early Warnings (to support maximizing upside benefits and minimizing downside limitations).

How is Effort And Ease showing up for you in your life or work now?
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Check out the Cliff’sNOTE focused on the Law of Least Effort that provides additional support for Effort And Ease