I have been frustrated with myself the last few days. Ok. More like these past few months. I have projects that I want to dive into and I have found myself very distracted. Ok. Fine. It has been an issue with me for a long time. There. Happy? Anyway. There have been things that I have wanted to write, projects that I have wanted to finish, and goals that are important to me, but the pattern has remained. I accomplish some and then I fizzle.
Don’t mistake, I have times of high productivity. I work with deadlines really well. When I know what has to be done and I know the time frame I have, I know how to work. This is part of why I am frustrated. When an expectation is placed on me that is outside myself, I rise to the challenge. A lot of times when I set the expectations I find it easy to get off track.
The Matrix is one of my favorite movies. There is a scene in it where the character Neo is in training. His mentor Morpheus is attempting to free Neo’s mind to see the possibilities and the potential that Neo possesses. As they are in a sparring match Morpheus tells Neo, “Stop trying to hit me and hit me.” He is telling Neo that there is more in him. More than Neo can see. More than Neo can even imagine. Neo just has to believe it.
I think the same is true of all of us creatively. There is so much potential for greatness inside. So much that we have yet to tap into. The hard part is sitting down to it, devoting ourselves to our aims, and working like mad until what we first imagined sits in front of us completed. The morale of the story: Stop trying to do it. Just get it done.
What experience have you had with this? How have you overcome it?
David Willis 