Do Less. Accomplish More.
Bring your work into focus and align it with nature — including your own nature.
Throughout the months of March and April, we are dedicating this Fearless Journeys book club to gaining insights from Deepak Chopra’s classic work, The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success. Today’s review covers the subject of Chapter 4: The Law of Least Effort.
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This is the principle of “Do Less. Accomplish More.”
This isn’t a recipe or an advocation of laziness. Rather, it is bringing our work into focus and aligning it with nature — including our own nature.
We each have talents, skills, and passions that are unique to us. When you find the cross section of those elements — and combine it with ways to earn a living — the law of least effort is expended because our actions will be motivated by love.
We waste a lot of time and energy chasing things — often money or whatever we deem personal gain. We chase the illusion of happiness, “instead of enjoying happiness in the moment,” says author Deepak Chopra.
“When our internal reference point is our spirit, our actions are motivated by love, and there is no waste of energy.”
This should further clarify what Chopra means by the Law of Least Effort.
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The next step is putting it into action in your life. He gives us 3 ways:
Accept people, situations, and events as they are, not as you wish they were, in this moment.
He adds: “This moment is as it should be, because it took the entire universe to make this moment. When you struggle against this moment, you struggle against the entire universe.” And that’s a lot of energy!
Take responsibility for your situation and for all the events you see as problems.
He adds: “All problems contain the seeds of opportunity, and this awareness allows you to take the moment and transform it into a better situation.”
Practice defenselessness: relinquish the need to convince others of your point of view. You’ll save a lot of energy — energy you can expend on doing what drives you and what drives you forward.
The overarching theme here is to stop fighting things that are out of your control, at least in the moment. Fully experience the present, which is a gift.
“When you embrace the present, you begin to experience the spirit within everything that is alive, and joy is born within you,” says Chopra.
This fourth law — the Law of Least Effort — assures us that there is always a simple, natural path to fulfillment. Embrace it. Right now. In the present.
This does not mean that you should throw in the towel to transform the future. Hardly!
Your dreams and desires flow with nature’s desires. Don’t let what troubles you in the present to overcome you. Keep moving forward. When the season is right, your desires will blossom into reality.