Cal Newport
Now this I can relate to! At times when one is busy, finding only fragments of time to make, it seems as if there isn't time to sit, to dwell upon, to ponder, to really consider the fullness of what you are trying to do.
I can find myself taking easy options and making the simple choice. Not pushing it further, not turning it around to look in a different way, not asking the questions of it, not taking the time to enable something to be the actual best it can be.
I find that a bit with reading news or long form journalism. I am more likely than not to scan and to skim rather than sit for an extended period of time reading lengthy articles that explain in a fuller way - I sometimes grab the headlines and go.
This is a really good reminder that if you spend all your time skimming over things, never dipping deeply into them, you can lose that skill of working slowly and deeply.
I can be like this too. The other day whilst doing yoga, the instructor used a phrase several times as we moved into each pose: "Don't decide where it ends". Her meaning was to experiment a bit with slight variations that might feel good, to keep exploring rather than just adopting the traditional version. The phrase turned out to be the actual focus of the entire practice and after hearing it four or five times I thought I should try and keep it in mind when doing creative work in an effort to keep pushing past what I think I know.
ReplyDeleteIsn’t that a fascinating phrase and thought? It offers so much, and stops us getting in the way of ourselves, stops us limiting ourselves and lets us keep exploring. An excellent reminder with creative work. Sometimes we probably think we know where it will end and work towards that, whereas the work may well benefit from keeping on or going sideways. The opposite of the management idea “ Begin with the end in mind”!
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