Creating Momentum

Sometimes I find it difficult to write. This blog serves chiefly for me to develop my thoughts, while also growing my writing skills along the way. But I still frame writing as a chore, a productive exercise that I don't exactly enjoy. For this reason, you may notice that I end up writing a lot about how to increase productivity, because it's something I struggle with while writing.

We all like to build things up to be more daunting than they really are. For whatever reason, we choose to suffer in our minds about things that don't end up being much of a struggle when they actually occur. I would not say that I'm an anxious person by any means, but sometimes I do notice that I psych myself out about things in a totally irrational way. The truth is, doing most things is really quite easy, but it's the moments leading up to that action that really matter.

I went skydiving this summer, and not to try and sound like a tough guy, but I wasn't nervous at all. From the time, the plane took off, to the moment I landed back on the ground, I don't think my heart rate really increased much at all. Sure it was cool, but I actually found it to be quite a waste of money. I never allowed myself to buy into the excitement, nervousness, and irrational fear of dying, and was left feeling smug and unfulfilled. That's because the level of satisfaction you get out of life depends more on the buildup of things, than the action.

Have you ever put something off for a while, let it get you all stressed out, and then when you finally take care of it, you were like "that's it?" Whether it's a having a tough conversation, doing chores, or exercising, procrastination crushes your ability to get things done. All we have to do is signal to our bodies that something is going to be unenjoyable, and our evolutionary processes kick in to keep us safe from the life and death threat of... homework? If we let our body's automatic responses take over, we will seriously delude ourselves in this way. If we let this manifest into our daily habits, we will find that daily tasks pile up like spam emails in our junk folder. The stress of performing these tasks may actually be valid, but it's more about allocating stress to the action rather than the reaction.

Admittedly, my room is always a mess. I have a bad habit of not putting things away when I'm done with them. Water bottles, clothes, garbage, all over the place. After a week or so of me just leaving this stuff wherever, my room is cluttered and I typically feel guilty enough to clean it again. But the cycle continues. I feel like my messy room can serve as an analogy to the way many people live their lives. If we don't set a high enough standard for our habits, we will waste our time doing things that don't benefit us. And after a while, we have the choice to either make the change, or get comfortable living inside of a messy room.

If we never take inventory on where we're at, it's very easy to get comfortable with less than our best. Most of the time, people won't take action unless there is a clear incentive or disincentive. In the same way that someone who's embarrassed of their upbringing may develop an incredible work ethic, I would clean my room so fast if I knew someone I cared about was going to see it. We're all on this journey together to chase the good feelings, and avoid the bad ones. But it takes a great deal of discipline and work to locally reduce the entropy that encroaches in on our lives everyday.

If we want to keep things rolling, we can't let anything get in the way of our incentives. The two main things that I think paralyze people is comfort and anxiety. Some people get rich and successful. but lose purpose because they have no incentive to work anymore. While others let daily tasks pile up too high around them to the point where even taking the first step is too overwhelming.

If we're at the beginning or end of a long journey, we tend to have a hard time finding the strength to do anything. Knowing this, people should make sure to keep things as actionable as possible. If you feel like you're getting too comfortable, manufacture a new purpose. If you feel like the journey ahead is too long to even begin, try to remain as nearsighted as possible. If you continually let your email inbox pile up day after day, the calmness that comes with a clear head, and empty inbox, will continue to escape you.

"Don't get bogged down in the minutia"

"Get money and stay aggressive"