Why is it that the harder you try, the more challenging success becomes? In this episode, Brandon G Handley dives deep into the paradox of effort and performance, revealing how our attempts to push harder can often lead to anxiety and self-sabotage. If you've ever felt overwhelmed by your ambitions or frustrated by stagnation, this conversation is your roadmap to understanding and overcoming that struggle. Brandon introduces listeners to the Yerkes-Dodson Law, a psychological principle that illustrates how optimal performance exists at a certain level of arousal and stress—but push past that point, and your efforts can backfire. He explains how our survival instincts can hijack our cognitive abilities, trapping us in a cycle of stress and worry that clouds our judgment and stifles our creativity. You'll discover how a shift in mindset can transform your approach to challenges, allowing you to channel your energy more effectively and achieve your goals without the unnecessary weight of anxiety. You'll learn about the importance of visualization and goal-setting, as Brandon emphasizes that without a clear vision, even the most diligent efforts can lead to frustration. He shares insights on how to break free from the constraints of traditional productivity expectations and embrace a more holistic, identity-based approach to success. By redefining what it means to strive, you can unlock greater potential and find peace in the process. If you've ever felt like you're pushing against a wall with no progress, this episode is a must-listen. Brandon's unique perspective and relatable anecdotes offer not just understanding but actionable strategies for reclaiming your mental space and focusing on what truly matters. Perfect for anyone grappling with the pressures of achievement, this episode invites you to rethink your relationship with effort and success. Tune in for an enlightening discussion that promises to reshape your approach to life and work, helping you navigate the paradox of trying harder to achieve more. Transcript: Brandon G Handley (00:00.046) Alright, let's have some fun here. First of all, if I told you that I was pulled over and parked in between a Chili's and an aspen dental in Pennsylvania, you'd be like, You could be just about anywhere, sir. You could be just about anywhere in the United States of America. I'm always telling the boys whenever we drive around, you know, just how much everything looks the same these days, isn't homogenized. But that's just me. being me, sometimes having grown up in backwoods, Virginia and having been exposed to kind of what real country living can look like and, you know, other different areas of of the country. All right. That is not the reason for this podcast. It's it's funny. But you know, how long does it take to actually make a podcast? Like ten, fifteen minutes, right? How long does it take to do the podcast? I mean that's a whole nother thing in in it and of itself. I've been Sitting on this one all week. And this one is one that I was going to bed the other night and I just wanted to put together like I had a question. I you know, it's like why literally I was like, why is it literally sometimes so hard? Right? Like, you know, the and why is it so hard, like the harder that you try? That was the question. The question was like, why is it why is it so hard the harder that you tried? And I was, you know, using Gemini and it it popped up with you know this thing and first of all first and foremost if you've been here you've been hanging out you know that I know the harder that you try the harder that it is. That doesn't mean that sometimes you just don't find yourself in that same trap. Trying harder. That being said here's what it gave back to me and I thought it was pretty awesome because I'd never heard of it before. The psychological curve, the Yerkes Dodson law right basically it just says hey when you try harder You increase your mental and physical stress up to a point this is helpful and sure. Yeah, it wakes you up, right? Focuses your attention and gets you into the growth zone. But once you pass that growth zone peak, your performance starts to plummet, right? And it starts to get you from challenged into this space of anxiety and panic, right? The extra effort actually works against you. Brandon G Handley (02:27.894) You become so stressed about the outcome that your cognitive bandwidth is consumed by worry rather than the task itself. And I was like, holy shit, man. I'd I had to pull over and and pull that up and and get it going. Now the rest I can give to you, right? and I said to it, said I was like, wow. I was like, this is very similar to one that I cite very often, which is out of a book called Subliminal. And in that book, it ties basically everything that you do that's related to your income, to your your amygdala, right? your your survival mechanism. It says, hey, if I have to you know if if I have to make money doing this thing that's actually tied to my survival And if it's tied to my survival, making that money is tied to my survival, it automatically just kind of it it takes it out of your prefrontal cortex and puts it down into demygula and applies like this stressor to it. Right? And so it's like mind blowing. And the thing is, is like I said, it's not like you don't already a lot of us already know this and you listen to this podcast, you probably are already aware of this. It doesn't stop it from happening. Why doesn't it stop it from happening? Because it's just normal for us now, right? That is our that our baseline is low-key hijacked stress, right? Our baseline is that there's always some level of ongoing stress running in the background. Brandon G Handley (04:21.922) That's our normal. And what do I mean by normal is simply that, hey, that's our that's our our baseline, right? That's our normal. And so we just don't even recognize that it's happening and going on. Right? We are we are that eternal frog in a pot of boiling water. And so every once in a while we can bring our awareness to it and or sometimes what needs to happen is our change in thinking. Okay? The change in thinking, where does that come from and how does that you know how does that impact what we do? And again, if you're listening to this podcast, you probably are familiar with people like Wayne Dyer, with people like Alan Watts, with Abraham Hicks, yada yada. The list goes on. You are you are familiar with asking and receiving and all this other stuff. But what you don't understand and what you may not understand that this is really already happening in you know maybe corporate America and all these other tools that have always been provided only they've been provided to you as strictly under the You are a productive unit. You are a cog in the machine. And so there's resistance when you see these tools like that. Visualization, for example, right? Visualization is not too different from having a goal in mind. Am I am I right? Right? Visualization is key to success, seeing yourself being successful in achieving a certain outcome. Brandon G Handley (06:07.064) Right. So seeing the the what is it? Seeing the end as the beginning, living from the end, right, as as Neville Goddard will talk about. but it's not too different from you know thinking backwards, right? Let's I let's where do we want this, you know, what's your desired end result? Put that image to your mind. And if you can't you know, or what is it that you most people don't know what they want. They don't know what they want, meaning that there's no image, there's no visualization, there's no goal. If don't have a goal, you can't achieve shit. Right? You're not gonna get there because you got nowhere there to get to. Right. And the flip side of it is if you keep focusing on where you are and all the ig to it, that's what you're you know, that's what you're gearing your mental algorithm to see. So it makes sense that the harder you try to achieve something is like you trying to force the outcome. It was the other image that came to my mind is that way back in the day, was it the Gary Larson comic, The Far Side, where that kid is just like literally, you know, pushing up against a solid wall. That's us. Sometimes we're just pushing this wall and it couldn't possibly go anywhere under our own Forces, right? We are like we're we're not getting anywhere with it. Okay. Not getting anywhere with it. And so it's interesting to see this paradox effect. And so when we go ahead and we start changing our our mindset and we start thinking about, like I already said, we think about like asking and receiving, visualization, applying these other two trust in the process, right? Becoming the architect of our own lives. We are now literally reprogramming ourselves and again. Brandon G Handley (08:02.872) These are all tools that I think that you have been exposed to in one way or other. The thing is, is like I already said, you've been exposed to it under the guise of you are a unit of production. This is how you must act in order to become productive, right? And sometimes that just so for me, right? For me, that was like f**k that. Right, I am so much greater than this unit of production and you literally can feel it you as a person, you can feel that in your body when you think that way. And so it's gonna get harder, as as this paradox effects is is is called out. and as also as we we relate it to our survival mechanism, right? If that thing that you're trying harder for is is related to the survival mechanism, you're you're gonna you're gonna feel like this stress. And you know, you're not really to blame for all of this. I mean, all of this comes and supersedes your whole life. This comes from all the way back in caveman days, right? If you got thrown out, if you were disliked, right? If you could not participate and be accepted by so
