RACING, SCULPTING

November 28th, 2018

The lens through which we view things can drastically impede our abilities.  For example, a project that we might undertake, such as starting a business, can be forever postponed if we look at it as a sort of race that requires a perfect start.  The outcomes of races generally have a high correlation with how they begin, and so we might hesitate forever with our first step regarding a project because we are trying to imagine the perfect step.

Such projects, however, are more like sculptures.  There is no time limit, though limiting time is often very good for progress and productivity.  More importantly, making a sculpture is not a race.  Pieces can be torn off of a sculpture and refashioned in a way that we cannot go back to a certain part of a race and rerace it. 

This second part about doing one part of a race over is innate to the perspective of perceiving a potential project like a race.  The fear of making that mistake before even starting is not properly picked apart.  Whereas, the sculptor looking at a mound of clay naturally has an inverse perspective:  Whatever progress or mistake is made doesn’t matter, it’s all clay anyway and it can be infinitely molded, until it’s just right.

Lack of motivation is almost always the absence of a good question.

Questions are catalysts that can radically alter the lens through which we look at the world.  Something as simple as: am I looking at this potential project like a race or like a sculpture has the potential to instantly ease the mind of fears that stagnate progress or initiation. 

We’re often compelled to collect quotes and jokes, but we may be better served to collect questions and form a kind of filter with that collection so that when we find ourselves stagnating, hesitating or fearful, we can run the situation through this filter of questions to jostle our perspective of the situation and see if something new reveals itself.

We’re best off to simply start:  what questions are you asking yourself these days?