Guide

When More Effort Stops Being the Useful Move

When work stalls, doing more of the same often feels like the only respectable move. This Guide names the point where added effort stops teaching you anything new and shows how to change the contact so the next step returns fresh information.

4 pages10 minutes

Who This Guide Is For

Who It Is Not For

The Promise

Help the reader distinguish an effort problem from a problem that requires a different kind of response.

Reading Order

  1. 1

    When Effort Is the Only Lever Still Being Pulled

    Recognize when trying harder has become the only lever you keep pulling, even though it is no longer teaching you why progress is stalled.

    3 min
  2. 2

    What More Effort Can and Cannot Change

    Draw the line between what added effort can change and what remains outside its reach.

    2 min
  3. 3

    The Difference Between Resistance and a Constraint

    Tell resistance inside a workable approach apart from a hard constraint that caps outcomes regardless of effort.

    2 min
  4. 4

    Choosing the Next Kind of Contact

    Pick a different kind of contact (decision, question, boundary, changed method, or test) to bring back new information.

    3 min

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