A few months ago I read The
War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles by
Steven Pressfield. The general idea is that we find reasons every day to not do
what we want to or should be doing. And almost everyone I know does it in some
big or small way. I do it when I talk myself out of going to the gym because I
walked to the copier 50 times at work and besides, I didn’t eat that bag of
chips they give you with your sandwich at Great Harvest. I do it when I get
home from work and brain dump via Solitaire for an hour instead of writing. A lot
of it is laziness. A lot of it is fear of failure—if you don’t reach for the
stars, you never have far to fall.
Eight tips are listed here:
And Steven Pressfield’s book is listed here:
The inspiration for this blog is this: I committed to writing a novel in 30 days last month and I didn’t. I have awesome excuses, but at the end of the month, I did NOT have a new novel. And that made me unhappy.
Blog off.
I’ve had conversations with friends that go like this:
“My boyfriend is such a rat,” she rants, staring at her fingernails.” He’s terrible to me. He
told me I was fat yesterday. Fat. He actually said fat. Not curvy or even
cushioned. Fat.”
“Sounds like you’re miserable," I respond, placing my hand gently on her shoulder. "Maybe it’s time to…you know…move
on. Or at least have a serious conversation.”
“Weeeeeeeeell….,” she says. “He just gets stressed out at
work sometimes. I should probably lose a couple of pounds anyway.”
Or there’s:
“I hate my job. My boss is a complete idiot. I haven’t had a
raise in three years. In fact, I was demoted
last year. Cutbacks, they said.”
Insert the rest of previous conversation here substituting “stay
off facebook at work” for “lose a couple of pounds.”
I know everyone’s
been or seen someone caught in the whirlpool of helplessness—a desperate
situation they can’t seem to get out of. Besides the aforementioned, there are
excuses for:
Not going to college/the DMV
Not getting out of debt/bed
Not taking your car/body in for maintenance
Not losing that extra five/fifty pounds
Not spending time with your children/spouse
Not starting/finishing projects
Not quitting smoking/drinking/drugs/playing World of Warcraft
Seriously, the list is endless. You’re thinking of stuff
right now that you never got around to starting or finishing. But the point is,
at the end of the day, you’ve NOT done what you wanted to do.
There are so many times I’m headed home from work and I just
don’t feel like going to the gym—I’m too tired or stressed or just feeling lazy—and
the difference between me going or not going to the gym is just a matter of
turning right or left at a certain intersection. If I turn left, I pull into
the parking lot at the gym, I get out, I work out, I feel better. If I turn
right, I go home, I play Solitaire for an hour, I spend the rest of the night
being annoyed at myself for not turning left. I make these decisions all the
time, for better or worse. E.g., I’ve been doing a juice diet since Monday (see
the movie Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead for inspiration http://www.fatsickandnearlydead.com/),
and every day around 4 pm, I start craving all sorts of things—the other day, I
started craving hot dogs, which is not really something that I ever eat in real
life unless it’s the 4th of July and there’s a grill involved. But
every day I make the choice not to run across the street to Wienerschnitzel and
order their Chicago Dog with a side of chili cheese fries—and as a result, I’ve
been waking up in the morning with more energy and cut my coffee intake down by
97.5%.
We all need some help getting there, though, so I’ve
included some links that I found helpful.
Twelve tips for getting over that hump are listed here:
Eight tips are listed here:
And Steven Pressfield’s book is listed here:
The inspiration for this blog is this: I committed to writing a novel in 30 days last month and I didn’t. I have awesome excuses, but at the end of the month, I did NOT have a new novel. And that made me unhappy.
Blog off.
Nietzsche had defined evil as anything ascertained easily and good with anything ascertained with difficulty. Thinking in terms of good and evil usually leads to an unnecessary rumination on the negative aspects of my life, so I avoid it.
ReplyDeleteOne of my favorite Shakespeare quotes, and one that works better than evoking the dire consequences of good and evil is: "Nothing is either bad or good, but thinking makes it so." Or perhaps the Tralfamadorians put it better in saying, "So it goes."
Ultimatley, I have found that completing tasks one step at a time leads to better results, and I beat myself up less.
Isn't it nuts the things people tolerate for fear of confrontation?
I've heard it called "facing the dragon"--a moment of extreme discomfort for long-lasting satisfaction. A lot of people never face it. It can be a teeny tiny dragon (more of a lizard, really) or a fire-breathing behemoth.
DeleteP.S. Wow, Jesse. You quoted Nietzsche, Shakespeare and Vonnegut in one comment.
P.P.S. I'm a Vonnegut fan.