We often encounter conflicting messages in the path of life.
For example, there's one piece of wisdom that says "doing the same thing over and over and over again and expecting a different result is a sign of insanity."
Then there's a different piece of wisdom that advises us that perseverance and patience is often what wins the race. We can point to things like Formula 409 household cleaner and ascertain that clearly whoever invented it had enough patience and perseverance to go through 408 iterations that didn't work the way they wanted it to.
Of course that's all well and good but how were they feeling when they rounded attempt
number 400?
Were they still driven and focused and attacking their problem with the same determination and perseverance as when they first started? Or were they down to a point where it was just "oh well, whatever, let's try throwing in a little yak spit this time and see if it makes a difference?"
I often talk about patience and perseverance being just about my only competitive edge in attempting things, but I think that also has a lot to do with the nature of what I'm undertaking. I realized this morning that I'm only willing to put so much effort into figuring out something that I don't know whether or not has possible solution. On the other hand, if I know there is a workable answer somewhere, that's when that perseverance is really starting to kick in.
That was actually one of the things I didn't like about working in corporate America. Too many experimental projects we would start in on operated a bit on the "three strikes and you're out" principle... where you didn't get to actually work a problem until you found a solution or absolutely determined that one could not be found. You got to take a couple of steps — or maybe three — and if that didn't work then you stopped. It's something that really doesn't suit my temperament very well!
So, do I have a point, here?
Yes!
This year, one of the things I put in my list of "things I would really like to accomplish this year" was to be more consistent with my creativity and writing.
I know this is a solvable problem because there are people all over the place, all the time, who turn out creative work regular as clockwork. I have not yet found my personal formula to making that work because my creative output tends to look more like a sine curve... where I fluctuate between manically creative at the peaks, and zombie down at the bottom of the valleys.
You might wonder why I even consider this an issue or a problem... and the closest I can get to the answering that is that in most creative fields it is consistency that tends to lead to some measure of success — unless you happen to be the absolute mad genius who catches one of those big waves with your overnight discovery and going viral.
But that has never been my approach to anything, because it always feels to me a bit like planning your grocery shopping around winning the lottery. Which, it seems, there literally are people who do!
I don't happen to be one of them.
As much as anything, this is a bit of a self-congratulatory post, because I have actually managed to write a post every day for two weeks, which is somewhat of an achievement, for me.
It may seem like a blog a lot, but I really don't. You know those HiveBuzz badges that sometimes show up in our comments? Yeah, I've had the "monthly blogger" one exactly three times in the course of... ninety six months here. Not that consistent.
Anyway, just sort of exploring ideas, as I am not far from starting my ninth year in this community...
Thanks for stopping by and reading my random ramble! Till the next one!
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Created at 2025.01.20 16:47 PST
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