It is what you do not yet know that is yer friend most.
My buddy Ray and I only got lost once while walking the Coast to Coast trail across England earlier this month.
Our solution was to follow a compass direction hoping to get back on the map.
(there was also a road we could have followed that would eventually have given us a clue where we were but we didn't take it)
This is the field we were standing near when we decided what to do. Nice eh? Notice, however, that there's no path through it.
3 weeks after getting back, it's this field and being lost and figuring out how to not be that seems like the best memory from the trip.
Not the idyllic meadows we crossed in sunshine.
Or the steep climbs.
It's the conquering of the unknown.
I bring this up because our brain's default position in every situation we face is to angle for the way that gives the most comfort, or is the most efficient, or hippest or cheapest.
The brain is rational. The brain aims to keep the status quo until something more comfortable comes along.
The brain needs tricking.
To create at a high level you must trick your rational brain into sitting down and letting the rest of the grey matter work.
I'll go into tricking the brain in detail in an upcoming post about using the workbook. All i'm aiming at here is to point at a small thought:
In your quest to make interesting work you must not choose the comfortable way.
You must not do what is efficient or logical or what satisfies someone sitting next to you.
You must overrule your brain.
You must march out into the field you don't know.
Anyone can follow the road. Dig?
Our solution was to follow a compass direction hoping to get back on the map.
(there was also a road we could have followed that would eventually have given us a clue where we were but we didn't take it)
This is the field we were standing near when we decided what to do. Nice eh? Notice, however, that there's no path through it.
3 weeks after getting back, it's this field and being lost and figuring out how to not be that seems like the best memory from the trip. Not the idyllic meadows we crossed in sunshine.
Or the steep climbs.
It's the conquering of the unknown.
I bring this up because our brain's default position in every situation we face is to angle for the way that gives the most comfort, or is the most efficient, or hippest or cheapest.
The brain is rational. The brain aims to keep the status quo until something more comfortable comes along.
The brain needs tricking.
To create at a high level you must trick your rational brain into sitting down and letting the rest of the grey matter work.
I'll go into tricking the brain in detail in an upcoming post about using the workbook. All i'm aiming at here is to point at a small thought:
In your quest to make interesting work you must not choose the comfortable way.
You must not do what is efficient or logical or what satisfies someone sitting next to you.
You must overrule your brain.
You must march out into the field you don't know.
Anyone can follow the road. Dig?
7 Comments:
That photo is mesmorizing. The beauty of nature will never get old, and always ceases to amaze me.
However, this scene awakens the feeling of lonlieness. It's very intimidating how the bold colors just clench onto you, and jerk you right into the middle of this confusing and imperfectly woven field that seems to never end. Has no way out. With thick, heavy clouds draped overhead.
It's the way it can feel to do the type of work you talk about. Or to try to do it. Lonely and intimidating. Everyone else has run for the road, thinking you're stupid for staying behind when really, this endless field is a blank canvas and you know it's the right way to go.
The road has already been taken.
It's been done before.
I agree with the field being a blank canvas, but I don't think people know it's the right way to go. The beauty of it is that you have no idea what's ahead, and the only thing for certain is that the outcome is unexpected. It's a gamble with progress, but at the same time, knowledge is what makes us grow.
mmmm, wheat. I'd like a BLT on toasted wheat.
Achieving a state of not being is tough. Once there, making sense of the randomness is tougher. How do you introduce an idea during your not beingness without reverting back to default thought?
you follow what makes the most sense at the current time.
if it makes sense, then it's rational thought, which is what you're trying to avoid.
We dig.
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