Overwhelming Force
September 22nd, 2005 by Steve Pavlina
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When you want to make a change in your life, especially a big one, you’ll typically meet resistance along the way. An effective strategy for rendering such resistance powerless is the strategy of overwhelming force. This is a military strategy of course, but we can co-opt it for our own personal development as well. Instead of merely dipping your toes into the change you’d like to make, you dive into it headfirst. Instead of undercommitting resources, you overcommit.
Too often when people attempt a big change, they undercommit their personal resources. Instead of a quick victory, they end up with a quagmire akin to Viet Nam, where they have to keep putting in more and more energy just to maintain the status quo.
For example, suppose you want to lose 50 pounds. You make some moderate dietary and exercise changes. For a while they work well, and you lose the first 10 pounds. But then you get stuck at 40 pounds overweight. You keep maintaining the same diet and exercise levels, but because you’ve undercommitted your resources, your total long-term effort is much greater than it needs to be. Exercising while 40 pounds overweight, month after month, perhaps even year after year, is very hard and takes a tremendous effort and discipline to maintain, especially when your results are minimal. Simply going through your daily routine with that much weight on you will make your life much harder than necessary. My daughter weighs about 45 pounds, and to carry her around for any length of time would be very difficult. I couldn’t even imagine going for a 5-mile run with her on my back. So even though the strategy of overwhelming force requires a greater up-front investment, in the long run it can save you a great deal of time and energy.
Think of all the personal resources you can use to apply overwhelming force to one of your goals — your intelligence, intuition, skills, talents, time, money, family, relationships, reputation, assets, environment, etc. If you find that you’re stuck in a stalement vs. the resistance working against you (whether internal or external), then perhaps it’s time to apply to the strategy of overwhelming force and just get the job done. Bring enough of these additional resources online until you reach the point where you not only feel you’ll overcome all resistance — you feel certain you’ll squash it.
Ask yourself, “What would it take for me not only to achieve this goal but to absolutely dominate it?” What would you consider overkill? Imagine your goal as if you’re planning a battle that you MUST win, regardless of the cost. Write down what you think it would take to be certain of success.
If you think you have an effective kill strategy for your goal, but it isn’t working too well, perhaps you’ve underestimated the resistance. Don’t feel bad if you find yourself in this situation — great military leaders have been punished by this mistake as well. Accept that your kill strategy may in fact be underkill, and what you think of as overkill may be just what you need.
Once you see your overwhelming force strategy written down on paper, you may be thinking, “Wow… this would work, but it would take a lot of work to get it going.” The goal may be more “expensive” than you first realized, and some sacrifice may be required. So this is when you have to decide whether the goal is actually worth doing. Is it worth the price to you, or is it truly too expensive and not worth the effort?
Once you figure out what it will really cost to achieve your goal, you can then decide whether you’re willing to pay that price or not. Often we fail to achieve goals quickly because deep down we feel the price is too high, but we don’t want to accept that. So we try to cheat by undercommitting resources, hoping the goal can be achieved with far less effort. In a handful of situations, we get lucky and achieve the goal more cheaply. But in most situations, we waste tremendous time and energy pursuing goals that never get achieved.
Imagine what your life would be like if you could achieve most of your goals on the first try because you applied overwhelming force. Your first diet took you quickly to your goal weight. Your first attempt to quit smoking lead you to become a permanent nonsmoker. Your first attempt to find a fantastic job succeeded. No rework, retesting, repeating, recommitting, revamping, re-anything. Applying the strategy of overwhelming force can even be fun too, such as when you have the goal of getting pregnant. 
You might recognize that this is another application of the principle of facing reality as explained in the previous podcast.
September 22nd, 2005 at 7:57 am
Steve: Thanks for this inspiring message. I plan to use this technique to tackle my weight loss and fitness goals, starting with an “overwhelming force” planning session, for which I have blocked out Saturday morning. A truly excellent idea.
Although I have been reading your blog almost daily for the past three months, I have not posted here before; but now that I am, I want to thank you for your work. Your idea of a timelog prompted me to put together an MS Excel spreadsheet, and my productivity at work went from about 45% to 82%. I don’t know why it works, but it does. Somehow it’s harder for me to goof off, cruise the net, or chitchat with my co-workers when I am “on the clock”. And the higher quality, more thorough work I have produced has been noticed by management here, with gratifying accolades. All in all I feel like more of a success at work thanks to your ideas. Keep ‘em coming!
– Rob in Fairfax, Virginia
September 22nd, 2005 at 10:11 am
you’re results are minimal ==> your results are minimal
September 22nd, 2005 at 1:19 pm
Steve,
By trial and error this approach has surfaced in my life as one of the only thing that works for me.
For example, I tried limiting my TV watching (to no avail) for years. Finally out of frustration, I gave my TV away. It has been 3 years now and I couldn’t be happier. I have taken the same approach to other aspects of my life as well with similar success.
Count me in as +1 for this drastic yet extremely effective approach.
–
Reid
September 22nd, 2005 at 3:31 pm
You know what’s funny, all those weight-loss magazines coach their readers on undercommitting. They focus on substituting one diet soda for one full-calorie soda a day, or parking at the edge of a parking lot instead of the front to add more exercise to your routine. I’m not saying small changes aren’t important. They not only add up over time, but they offer people completely unfamiliar with that territory a way to dip their toes in and build confidence. However, there comes a point where it’s all or nothing. There’s a lot about life you just can’t half-ass your way through.
I have a personal metaphor for thinking about things like this. It’s jumping into Lake Tahoe. Tahoe’s so cold, it’s really intimidating to go swimming in it most of the year, and at most of the beaches. If I inch my way in, I’m way more likely to decide to just hang out on the beach and not swim at all. Or, if I do end up swimming, I’ve wasted hours, sometimes, inching in and out of the water. If your goal is to swim, then just run straight in and dive! It’s frightening, but exhillarating. And the exercise of conquering that momentary fear for the ultimate goal is invaluable.
September 22nd, 2005 at 4:56 pm
+1 for all of the above. I have a hard time not being absorbed by the television, there are always so many interesting things on. Fortunately, my wife was game for giving it up. We took the same approach to buying chips. Cold turkey works!
Jesus echoed part of this concept when he said: “Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Will he not first sit down and estimate the cost to see if he has enough money to complete it? For if he lays the foundation and is not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule him, saying, ‘This fellow began to build and was not able to finish.’ Or suppose a king is about to go to war against another king. Will he not first sit down and consider whether he is able with ten thousand men to oppose the one coming against him with twenty thousand? If he is not able, he will send a delegation while the other is still a long way off and will ask for terms of peace.”
September 22nd, 2005 at 5:22 pm
While I know that this method works on certain types of goals, it doesn’t help on a good number of unquantifiable goals.
For instance, if I say I want to be a more patient person, this really doesn’t help me. While I can recognize myself as avoiding change, targeting an overwhelming force is more difficult.
So, another good method for the more qualitative improvements can be done by counting stones. Get a bag of black stones and a bag of white stones. As you go throughout your day, pay close attention to the actions that you perform. If you lose your temper, set aside a black stone. For each situation which you consciously avoided a negative reaction through patience, give yourself a white stone. Ideally, at the end of the day, only white stones are set aside (If you are being truly honest with yourself).
Eventually, you should learn to target your weaknesses as far as the trait you desire is concerned. By constantly questioning your actions, you create a better atmosphere for inducing change in yourself.
September 22nd, 2005 at 5:58 pm
Great article. Clearly this is one of many tools you can use to help achieve your goals.
If you haven’t read Steve’s previous 5-part series on Self Discipline, it’s an excellent (and in-depth) companion to this article. I would use “overwhelming force” during the “willpower” phase, to break out of existing habits and to establish a beach-head for sustainable, continued improvement.
Overwhelming force clearly isn’t sustainable beyond the short term, but it’s an excellent technique to get started. That burst of progress can also provide visible benefits, which gives a great psychological boost.
I would also caution against running more than 1 willpower-driven project at once (or even 2 in a row, without a month or so of rest in between). They take a LOT of energy and often need to constantly occupy a portion of my brain 24/7 while the project is in progress. Pick your projects carefully, and only commit fully when you’re prepared to.
For example, I have a project for natural vision improvement queued up for attention. I’m planning to hit it with a few weeks of “overwhelming force” to kickstart the project with. But it’s going to take 2+ hours of commitment every day during that phase. I’m not going to even try to start until I’m willing and able to commit that amount of time.
September 22nd, 2005 at 11:58 pm
I needed this. Thanks.
September 23rd, 2005 at 6:05 am
This post is so applicable to what just happened to me that I’m frankly flabbergasted at the synchronicity.
I’m currently taking two classes which end the first week of October. Both classes have papers that need completed prior to the final. One class requires a mammoth syntactical, grammatical, exegetical, and theological study on a chunk of Bible verses (we’re talking 20 pages miniumum). The other class has two papers, both which require a cultural and historical study, as well as interpretative study, of two separate Bible chapters. Early this month I sat down and asked myself, “What would be the best way to get these done quickly? Could I get all three done in a week?”
A week, you say? A week. First I decided to devote one entire Saturday to the library. No girlfriend, no friends, etc.; just the library from 8:30 a.m. to 10:30 p.m. with a lunch and dinner break. Then I decided that I needed to have all my food and snacks bought ahead of time and with me; also, I would make copies of all my source material instead of transcribing notes from reading. I work a part-time job that gets out at 2:00 every day, and it takes me 45 minutes to get from work to my school’s library. So I decided at the outset that I would again arrange with my girlfriend to see her next week, dropped all social activities, and would use the library from 3:00 to 10:30 every weekday.
My goal was to have all three papers done by the following Saturday, even using the second Saturday if needed. Well, it’s Friday as I type this, and as of last night I finished all three papers. Unbelievable! When I was an undergraduate, I thought you needed weeks to write a good paper. Now I see it was just a matter of organization. My mammoth paper exceeded the expected limits and is over 30 pages; I finished that in three days. Papers 2 and 3 were finished in a day each. I’ve got two extra days left to focus on other things now. It feels great.
Little did I know it, but I was incorporating overwhelming force. And it worked!
September 23rd, 2005 at 7:11 am
Steve,
In your earlier series on self-discipline you advocated increasing the “weights” gradually, not suddenly. Are you now suggesting that if gradually does not work, try suddenly ? Maybe I have totally misunderstood you here, some clarification will be of help to me.
September 23rd, 2005 at 8:26 am
@Kamal: This post isn’t about building self-discipline or developing other character attributes. It’s about achieving a specific goal.
September 23rd, 2005 at 9:34 am
This post really hits home for me.
I recently broke up with my girlfriend of 8 years although I wanted out after only 3 or 4 years with her. I tried and tried and tried, but it always seemed like such a hassle (we lived together and as soon as I talked break-up she became an angel). Well, this past time I overcommitted. I signed a lease with another apartment, I told my friends and family it was over, and I came clean to her with things that were true but really hurt her. There was no going back. There were weeks where I really questioned if I did the right thing, and felt pretty low about the it all. But now I know that I made the right decision and view it as perhaps the biggest challenge I have overcome in my life.
September 23rd, 2005 at 9:54 am
I’m doing this right now (i.e. today). I live in the midwest but want to work for a Bay Area startup. One of the annoyances is that companies want to have you go through several phone interviews before they fly you out. Further, some companies don’t fly people in at all. I just had one company actually fly me out, and I’ve decided to not fly back but to rent a motel for a week and then buy a new flight which will take me home and (should I end up with a job) back here again after I’ve taken care of some commitments at home.
I really get a rush by just going for a lot of gutsy goals that I’m not sure if I’ll be able to pull off, and I think it helps me to perform better too. In reality, I expect that at least some of the commitments I’ve recently made will go well and ultimately — even if if I fail in some — I’ll be better off for doing this.
September 23rd, 2005 at 2:15 pm
Steve, thank you for this article. It is certainly useful.
Today I went to the bookstore (it is a quite small bookstore by US standards) and read the titles of all the books in the self-improvement section.
I think there are about 100 books. I was looking for a book on happyness - how to create it.
Guess what - out of 100 books, only one was about happyness, and about 2 others about depression. The rest of the 97 books were mostly about achieving goals in general or about achieving a particular goal (losing weight, finding a boyfriend or a girlfriend, etc).
So.. I think that what is missing right now is not more stuff about achieving goals (altough they are useful, and your posts have certainly been very good) but more stuff about achieving happyness.
September 23rd, 2005 at 10:07 pm
Steve,
Regarding my question above (gradually vs. suddenly), I understand your point. But what if my specifc goals is self-discipline. I have been trying to discipline myself, but after making a little progress, I usually slip back to old ways. This has become some sort of a barrier for me. Can some sort of overwhelming force be applied to that situation ? Or would you suggest I should be patient and keep trying?
Rgds, Kamal
September 24th, 2005 at 4:17 am
@Kamal: My view of building self-discipline is that it’s just like building muscle. The principle of “overwhelm” can still work to shock you into growth, but growth occurs in small steps. You don’t typically go from lifting 30 pounds to 300 pounds in a weekend. Building self-discipline is incremental — to a certain extent, it takes self-discipline to build self-discipline, just as it takes muscle to build muscle.
For example, I’m up at 5:15am on a Saturday morning typing this before I go exercise. When I was less disciplined, I would have slept in. But these changes were gradual over a period of years, with many attempts that failed before I was finally able to “lift” this weight. And after having reached this point, there are still more steps to take to become stronger in this area. It’s a lifelong process that requires hard work and patience. However, the ultimate payoff of self-mastery is well worth the effort. Self-mastery is a process though, not a destination.