"The way through the challenge is to get still and ask yourself, 'What is the next right move? What is the next right move?' and then, from that space, make the next right move and the next right move."
- Oprah Winfrey, during a talk to the Stanford Graduate School of Business
☘️ Happy March ☘️
In response to last week's letter on facing scary things, someone responded with the following question:
My question is about clarity. If a fear examination is a logical first step to clarity, what's the second step? I imagine it's action or some such thing. How do we take an inspiring action while living in a material world that requires a job to function in, a job that's inspiring at best, tolerable at worst (because if it's toxic one definitely shouldn't do it).
Firstly, I'd say that a practice of awareness is step zero, before even a fear examination. Without a foundation of mindfulness, it is difficult to even recognize what are fears, what is tolerable, what is toxic, what is inspiring, etc.
When we feel stuck in a lack of clarity, we often think we have to take some big action to get unstuck. Quit your job. Travel the world ( l o l not pointing any fingers here).
Obviously, this is NOT the answer to most people's situations.
Clarity isn't going to be magically found. Just like passion, creativity, or any other abstract entity, we aren't going to manifest clarity by nebulously chasing it. Clarity is created and built.
It's like putting a jigsaw puzzle together even when we don't know what the final image is going to be. We only get a clearer understanding of the image when we take action on putting it together, piece by piece (that analogy sounded better in my head— hopefully it kind of makes sense though).
So what does taking action step by step look like, even when you don't have a final goal in mind? Or if you're stuck in a job that's maybe a little meh? Trying something. Experimenting. Even if it's only five minutes a day or five minutes a week, I promise you, you can do something. It doesn't even have to be inspiring action for now, it just has to be action.
Depression taught me how to break down action into the babiest of steps. In the midst of some of my most depressive states, I had to coax myself to do something— anything. Getting out of bed was a nearly impossible feat. Taking a shower was suddenly like climbing Mt. Everest. You don't have to do anything today, I told myself, just put your feet on the floor. Next— You don't even have to take a step— just stand up. Next— You can stay in your pajamas— just walk to the bathroom and brush your teeth. Etc. Etc. One step at a time. Before you know it, I might have actually gotten through the day.
I'm thankful for these experiences that taught me how to do anything with tiny steps. Even now, I trick my brain into being okay with writing a book— Don't worry about writing a whole book, just write 500 words. If even 500 words seems like too much, I'll tell myself, Write for 10 minutes. Anything you want. Even if you only get ONE word out. This is basically how I've tricked myself into writing almost 30,000 words of my manuscript so far.
How to Be Great? Just Be Good, Repeatably by the wonderful Steph Smith is a longer read on this and arguably one of the best pieces out there on how to take repeatable action.
Remember permaculture principle #9 as I mentioned in ch. 2— Start small.
Want to start running? Put on your shoes and go for a walk.
Always wanted to learn how to draw? Pick up a pencil and draw a stick figure.
Behind on your reading goal for the year? Pick up the book and read one page.
Want to look for another job? Reach out to one person you could talk to.
Want to start a company? Talk to someone about a problem they have.
Do something, anything, besides passively scroll on your phone.
Much light and love,
Amy
et cetera
Another relevant read by Steph - You Don't Need to Quit Your Job to Make
📚 reading
Will the Millennial Aesthetic Ever End - this article has me wondering what the next phase of aesthetics beyond pink blankets, potted plants, and a nice bold sans-serif font will be.
“In this era, you come to understand, design was the product. Whatever else you might be buying, you were buying design, and all the design looked the same.”
"As the millennial aesthetic grows omnipresent, as its consumers grow more design-fluent, our response grows more complex. We resent its absence (Why is this restaurant website so crappy?) but also resent its allure; we resent that knowing the term sans serif does not make you immune to sans serif’s appeal. The desire for individuality rebels against its sameness, even as the sameness feels reassuring, feels good."
The Intelligence of Honey - the substack of Saeed Jones, poet and author of the memoir, How We Fight For Our Lives. This week, he wrote something that sums up a lot of why I write:
“I don’t think it’s enough to save our lives in the present; I think we need to reach ourselves in the past, even if it’s only to make amends or pass on an idea we’ve come to understand years later. Who would we be now if we could connect with ourselves back then, just in the nick of time? And because, as far as I know, we cannot actually go back in time, what are we doing to rescue ourselves now, in real time? That the question is a paradox is, perhaps, why it continues to generate so much energy for me as a writer. After all, each of us will probably spend the rest of our lives working to save our lives.”
🖊 writing
Background for the newcomers— I’m writing a book with the working title of Reclaiming Control: Looking Inward to Recalibrate Your Life slated for publication in July 2020. If you have any thoughts or stories surrounding burnout, mindfulness or emotional intelligence, I’d love to hear them.
Nothing too exciting this week after the big push of the first draft. Just more work on outline / chapter structure / cleaning up and adding to stories.
🙈 playing
The Best of Illustration by the New York Times. This is a fun piece with such attention to detail and is super creative with all the little ways of interacting with users. There's something immensely satisfying of using the mouse to draw and seeing the different colors appear.
Here’s a puppy gif just cus:
That's all, thanks for reading 💛
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