Good NY Times article about procrastination. Put off reading this as long as possible :>)
The article explains how non-creative, driven types tend toward “pre-crastination” – the urge to start and finish a task ASAP. Of course some tasks deserve more time … the road less traveled (or not yet constructed), to innovate, contemplate, cogitate … to allow for flow to happen. Many artists as well as entrepreneurs are good at that more creative allowing, not forcing, discovering what is possible, so why bring this up at all?
Because in between these two archetypes – the dreamer (what could be done) and the realist (what must be done) – is the opportunity for peace, optimal performance and great fun.
The companion blog post that will bring this point home, helping us avoid the “Dark Playground” that is nearly everyone’s nemesis: waitbutwhy.com/2013/10/why-procrastinators-procrastinate.html
The Dark Playground is where the “Instant Gratification Monkey” wants us to go play. It is the culprit, naturally. Every good story needs one of these (hint: dopamine is not necessarily our friend). Out of all the deep neurological impulses, pleasure (approaching system), pain (avoiding system) and participation (affiliation system), which one usually wins out? If you are reading this, looking for an answer, I believe you just got served.
I’m not saying this is or is not an issue for you – I do not live in your head … hey, I barely live in my own head! But reflecting on it may offer some useful perspective.
Here’s a reasonable antidote to this more mental fascination, which is ultimately about our somewhat pedestrian and subjective relationship to time and task completion: Mindfulness — An Eight-week Plan for Finding Peace in a Frantic World. Quite a joyful prospect in this book, based on techniques even I’m finding useful.
But sometimes poetry captures the soul of an idea more than anything else. This quick video of author Mark Williams rendering a poem by Roger Keyes, inspired by the paintings of Japanese artist Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849) says it all: twitter.com/drdannypenman/status/648897679934758913
Mindfulness says “let life live through you.”
Happy Martin Luther King Day 2016,
Daniel