How frequently do we pick up a task, decide we are going to do it, solve that problem, fix the broken thing, get into a habit and drop it in three days...well 3 months if you are determined. Despite our terrible track record of sticking with hobbies, tasks, problems, habits, we pick something up again. Hoping this time it would be different and to no surprise of ours, it is not any different.
Everyone experiences this. Even the legendary polymaths of the enlightenment era did or the historically most productive and accomplished people of science and whatnot. This problem is as old as mankind itself. Naturally, throughout history, people have shared their insights on how to address this issue. All of them use colourful words, anecdotes and metaphors to explain how to stick to a decided path and keep moving forward.
Despite how grand this problem seems, the solution is quite underwhelming.
The resolution is a three-part solution but it can be explained in one phrase
Charles Bukowski's tombstone says 'Don't try' - That is it. This is how to be purposeful.
Charles Bukowski used this phrase in many of his poems. He explained the meaning of this phrase to John William Corrington in a letter he said...
Somebody at one of these places [...] asked me: 'What do you do? How do you write, create?' You don't, I told them. You don't try. That's very important: not to try, either for Cadillacs, creation or immortality. You wait, and if nothing happens, you wait some more. You wait for it to come to you.
Although the lesson is for beginner writers failing to write, I think the advice can easily be extended to anyone who is trying to do something, anything.
The reason this is useful advice is that when one stops trying when the weight of being useful or purposeful is lifted, one can pay attention to the task at hand rather than whether or not the task is useful or whether or not the task is 'productive'.
I have often believed if I would begin to feel that I do not need to be useful, I will not be useful. Setting the intentions before picking up a task is critical, I need to know why I am doing what I am doing, the downside is while doing it, I keep wondering if my 'Why' is being justified. But the problem is human minds are capable of doing only one thing at a time. I can either do the deed or I can either judge the deed. When one tries to do both, neither happens.
So, don't try. Just stop trying. Once the intention for the task is set, forget it and then do the deed.
The perfectionist's unease
Often times the professionals are known to hit 'blocks' where despite their experience, they are unable to create. The anxiety to put pen to paper eats them away.
This happens because the perfectionist is trying to create the 'best' of something. The problem with that is that at a given point, even the experienced among us can only be one thing at a time. They can only be the creator or the critic.
If they are both often the critic will take over the creator and that's when the creator is stunted.
This also points at how one must focus on the micros while the macro picture is clear in their heads. While working on the micros one cannot be worried about the macro and vice versa.
Conflict of creator vs critic
George R R Martin in a conversation with Stephen King had said that at a given time one can either be a writer or an editor. One cannot be both at once. That is how he manages to put pen to paper. This dissolves the unease the perfectionist within us experiences.
Efficiency kills wonder
Often times when setting a goal, plans are airtight, no room for error or buffer. In case a plan is missing, we fill all our waking hours working/thinking and writing about the goal and plan for a plan. Although this headfirst immersion into things is a good way to get started, it often leaves no room for the do-er to wander in their thoughts, no room to engage with concepts, ideas or content that at first glance seem irrelevant. Often times it's these seemingly irrelevant leads have the potential to shift perspectives, make the room bigger and help us look at the bigger picture.