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Monday, June 13, 2011

An experiment in spinning

As I was blog-browsing today, I stumbled on the following words, 

"We'll spend months thinking about and arguing about a product supposedly doing nothing (even for just a speed bump of a Mac.) and then start spinning." 

How many times do I find myself paralyzed by perfectionism? How often to I give myself the space to "think and argue about ______, supposedly doing nothing?" And it seems as though I'm missing out! Because in my search for results I end up doing a heck of a lot of nothing anyway. So what would happen if I took an idea, wrote "shitty first drafts"--as Anne Lammott likes to say-- and second and third shitty drafts on it? What if I let myself spend hours listing questions I have about how this idea might turn into something? 
To come to think of it, a lot in my life that has worked for me has involved a similar process; of just knocking on doors until one opens and avoiding paralyzing discouragement when two or three or five close. I kept knocking and breathing and reaching until I got into that yoga pose; until I get the community I longed for; until I get the job. 
Maybe judging our "non results" is where we make our first mistake. Maybe if we dwell in the "non results" phases enough we too will start spinning. 

1 comment:

Rodela said...

true! the other day i was watching a great TED talk by eve ensler (vagina monologues author) and she was talking about this elusive term "security". we are always searching for security whether it's sticking to a certain community or group or whether it's not knocking on those doors because we are so afraid of not getting results and thus risking our sense of security. maybe the best way to live life then is to embrace the discomfort and insecurity because sometimes they lead to the most beautiful moments! :-)