What are the ways that people who get great at things fit the work into their life? It’s definitely a cliche, but you get out of college and life in the real world is busy! I mean, on the other hand, everyone’s “real world” is different. Your “real world” is different if you have kids or not, or if you own a house or not, or if your wife is in a heavy graduate program… And of course I have biases and blinders and therefore can’t think of all the things that could make my “real world” a lot tougher than it is now. What if my health was an issue? I am committed to this program, and won’t accept any of this as excuses for myself, but I think it’s only realistic to analyze why I might fail and where I have failed in the past.
“I think a lot about this relationship between cynicism and hope. And critical thinking without hope is cynicism. But hope without critical thinking is naïveté. And I I try to live in this place between the two to try to build a life there because finding fault and feeling hopeless about improving our situation produces resignation of which cynicism is a symptom and against which it is the sort of futile self-protection mechanism.”
or
Wisdom tells me I am nothing. Love tells me I am everything. In between my life flows.
Ok, back to the work:
What is the balance between working harder and making more space for work?
When you make more space for work, is it by neglecting some things, or getting someone else to do them, or simplifying so that those tasks aren’t there?
Some of the things that one could neglect could also be undercutting your learning. Sleep. Nutrition. Order. How do you decide whether or not it’s important for your office to be clean, both for the sake of a clear head for work and for a general ability to function in society! Or your lawn mowed… Things you neglect can also pile up into much larger problems.
Efficiencies seem to be a key, though sometimes it seems like they require a lot of effort and they may not have a clear result until after you’ve actually put them into practice. Would it be better to spend a half hour each day meditating, running, doing two loads of laundry, or tracking my budget? All of those seem like consistent efficient effort would make my life better, and possibly make my practicing more efficient, or I could ignore all of those and practice more! The best efficiencies are ones you can justifiably get paid for.
I would suspect that most people aren’t so conscious of these questions, and probably a lot of people who get great at things either luck into or unconsciously get into situations that work for them.
That comment by my theory professor on “is not motivated by external factors” has stuck with me in a deep way. I wish I could decide to focus better. I wish I could decide to focus on my wife and family better.
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