This year, I created a workout plan to go to the gym 4-5 days a week.
And I planned ALL THE WAY—I got an accountability partner, a calendar to cross off days, made daily to-dos. And still, I eventually stopped going to the gym.
In the same year, I learnt to play the piano from scratch. Without ever wanting to.
How did I practice 80 hours of piano without wanting to, while failing miserably on my carefully planned exercise routine?
The Counterintuitive Reason People Fail
You see, the habit you desire most is the one you fail the hardest.
The greater your desire to build a habit, the more pressure you feel to execute perfectly. But the more pressure you feel to execute perfectly, the less likely you are to set-up the habit so you can do it unconsciously (though imperfectly).
That’s a fatal mistake. And it is caused by neglecting Zero Energy Principle. Zero energy is the law that determines which practices can become effortless over time.
The Zero Energy Principle
Anything that takes zero willpower to initiate will occur when triggered.
Anything that takes significant willpower to initiate will occur when triggered only if significant conscious effort is spent on making it happen.
The Zero Energy Principle allows us to design our life in a way that our habits become unconscious. It also dictates that habits that do not become unconscious will always need working on (which is sometimes okay, as we’ll see).
Changing your life without zero energy is like driving with your eyes closed—you’re handing over to reigns to supernatural luck.
That’s Why I Play Piano Now
The reason I learnt piano was that it took no conscious effort to do. The room I used to study in in college just happened to have a piano in it. So, when I was procrastinating (yes, it was all the time), I’d bang on the keys for a bit.
Eventually, I thought: “I should learn a song.” It went from there.
Crucially, my plans for piano didn’t hold me back—I didn’t have any. If I wanted to smash the keys for a minute and leave, then that’s what I did.
In contrast, every time I went to the gym I felt like I had to be there for 90 minutes. There was just so much on my plan!
When I invariably failed to meet my weekly goal, it felt like all my previous work had been wasted. It was so much to think about that I just stopped going.
What Does It Take?
Be Like Pareto
Zero energy follows the pareto principle—it seeks the 20% effort that brings 80% of the results.
Why settle for 80%?
DON’T. If you’ve found a way to get all 100% of the results, do that. But odds are that some areas your life are still at 20%. For those, use zero energy to get 80% of the results, almost for free.
Leave Perfectionism at the Door
So many artists have erased themselves because of their perfectionism. I can’t tell you who they are because we’ll never get to see their work.
To make zero energy habits, you’ll have to leave perfectionism at the door. For any goals that is not 100% the top priority, get comfortable doing a little easily than trying to do it all with great effort. When you do, you can design your zero-energy habit.
How To Create Zero Energy Habits
Ask yourself: What can I do, almost without effort, that would get me 70% of the results I’m looking for?
If sitting down to write is too much, free-write for 15 minutes on your commute.
If diet-control is too difficult, add one bowl of your favorite healthy vegetable to lunch daily to start.
If you can’t read, listen to an audiobook on your way to work.
Remember, zero energy habits don’t need to be effortless throughout the action. As long as they feel radically easy to begin doing (compared to whatever your habit was before), you’re on the right path.
When to use Zero Energy
Now not every practice needs to become effortless. Work rarely is, but you still keep doing it. You can maintain 1-3 practices in your life through sheer will. For the others, use zero energy.
Now the habits that you choose to focus willpower on might be those that matter to you most. For me, that’s writing—a little writing is effortless, but that amount I want to write takes concerted effort sometimes. I’m fine with that.
Exercise on the other hand, is important to me, but not my ONE THING. So, if I can reach 60-75% of my fitness goals without thinking or effort, I’m delighted.
That is what Zero Energy is for. To make effortless those practices that are important to you, but that you don’t need to, and cannot afford to optimize through willpower and attention.
My Report Card: Applying Zero Energy to Exercise
After working out didn’t…well, work out, I decided to work in. I realized that by doing push-ups, pull-ups, and squats at home, I could get 70% of the results I wanted with almost none of the effort and commitment of gym-going.
So I tried it, and it’s been…not bad!
I’ve stuck with the pushups and pullups, which really are zero energy habits for me. it takes me 13 minutes to complete 4 sets (1 short workout), and I actually like the break from work.
The squats haven’t worked out. Probably because they aren’t zero energy for me. I need to do too many squats before it can actually count as a workout—that’s effort I find too boring to get into.
Moving forward, I’m going to try a variation (Bulgarian split squats) that’s harder. The fact that it won’t take as many repetitions to get tired might be what I need to reduce the effort it takes to start.
(if you’re wondering about cardio, another zero energy habit—the running and walking I do just to be able to write—has been enough).
Zero Energy is a Philosophy for Life
Zero Energy might sound like lifestyle design—the put-your-shoes-out-the-night-before-running kind of advice. That’s certainly part of it.
But zero energy goes far deeper than that: it is a principle for being in the world.
Zero energy is about understanding that your truest self-expression, and consequently your greatest gifts to this world, are not the product from fierce discipline. Instead, you express yourself most truly by removing the obstacles and life plans that are in your way.
When you take the care to make your work effortless, you allow yourself flow. And when life becomes flow, discipline no longer matters. Everything good in your life is created simply by you being yourself in the world.
That is the power of zero energy habits. They become part of you. And after that, there’s nothing left to do.
Want a zero energy way to come across insights about life and living it?
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