Effort defeats itself. Coué's law, which Murphy adopts wholesale: "When your desires and imagination are in conflict your imagination invariably gains the day." Gritting your teeth to remember blanks the exam mind; forcing prayer produces the opposite of the prayer. "Mental coercion or too much effort shows anxiety and fear which block your answer. Easy does it." The subconscious obeys the dominant image, not the strongest will — and straining only proves to it that you doubt the outcome, which it then executes.

— In our words · Source: The Power of Your Subconscious Mind (Joseph Murphy)