I find that it’s really easy to get distracted by seemingly little tasks which grow as you get into them. I was working on what should have been a simple task this morning, which expanded into the afternoon. I think it’s really important to be on the lookout for such time traps and be prepared to cut loose of them.
It’s hard, when you want to help someone or you feel a certain psychological pressure to succeed. I didn’t get the joy of success but I do feel a certain contentment in knowing that I recognized the error in continuing. I think the key is setting a time-frame for success and then holding yourself to that goal. I should have re-evaluated when I went beyond the morning but it is so easy to get invested into something and fool yourself into believing in “just one more thing.”
So much of daily life is learning to work with the idiosyncrasies of our minds. I say “work with”, rather than “overcome” because I don’t believe we really change.
Michelangelo is famously quoted “Every block of stone has a statue inside it and it is the task of the sculptor to discover it.” I believe the same is true of the individual. We have a personality, sub-routines of the mind, which dictates how we interact with the world. As we grow, we develop what we have within us. We emerge from our stone.
Trying to force other people’s habits upon our own will result in an incomplete or superficial person. A passable sculpture, perhaps, but not a great work of art.
Let your goals be a river through the landscape of your mind.
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