Apply force where force changes the outcome.

Force is only useful where it has purchase. Applied to something that does not respond to pressure, another person’s opinion, a decision already made, a situation you cannot reach, it just wears you down and often makes things worse. The skill is not in being able to push hard but in recognising where pushing does something.

List what you are currently straining against and mark which items would actually move under more pressure. Withdraw effort from the rest, not out of resignation but so it can go somewhere it counts. Most people are pushing hard on at least one thing that was never going to give.