#547 Why we all want to be what we aren’t
The normal want to be special
The special want to be normal
We all want to be what we aren’t
Because if you already are
How can you ever desire?
The normal want to be special
The special want to be normal
We all want to be what we aren’t
Because if you already are
How can you ever desire?
One of the most potent drivers of change AND perpetuators of old habits is cognitive dissonance:
In the field of psychology, cognitive dissonance is the perception of contradictory information, and the mental toll of it. Relevant items of information include a person’s actions, feelings, ideas, beliefs, values, and things in the environment. Cognitive dissonance is typically experienced as psychological stress when persons participate in an action that goes against one or more of those things.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_dissonance
What’s interesting about cognitive dissonance is that both “sides” of the dissonance are not equal:
If you think one thing, but you do something else, eventually you’ll start believing what you do, not what you think.
In other words: actions overrule thoughts.
We usually start in the first scenario until we gain enough leverage over ourselves to change our actions. The moment we change our actions to actions that conflict with our thoughts/beliefs, we’re creating cognitive dissonance.
Then, if we follow through with our new actions, our beliefs start to change.
The big turning point is that moment where you start taking a different action.
Which begs the question:
Identify your leverage points that jolt you into action, and you gain power over your beliefs and identity.
It’s hard not to trust someone who fully trusts themselves.
But it’s hard not to accept someone who fully accepts themselves.
It’s hard not to be at ease around someone fully at ease with themselves.
In other words: if you want others to trust, accept, and be at ease with you, first learn to trust, accept, and be at ease with yourself.
You don’t need anyone else for that – just some tiny daily actions that prove that trust, acceptance, and comfort to yourself.
Oh, and you could start with that today.
You don’t have to.
But you could. And if you could, why wouldn’t you?
First, envision the future you – the one you’d love to be.
Now, what would that future you do today? What would they avoid?
And if you start acting like your future you today…
Have you not pulled the future you into the present…
Have you not already become who you’ve always wanted to be?
One swallow doesn’t make a summer and one off-day doesn’t kill your discipline.
But keep in mind, your actions are votes, and your votes build habits.
My advice? Better maintain the majority for the habit you want to be here to stay.
If you know where you should go, relax. You’ll get there, fast or slow.
If you don’t know where you should go, relax. You’ll probably still get where you must go.
Breathe in. Breathe out.
Keep moving.
Fast or slow.
Plants are productive when they’re fertile: capable of producing fruit or offspring.
Plants are only prolific when they actually produce fruit in abundance.
https://wikidiff.com/prolific/productive
When it comes to creativity, we humans are all productive in the sense that we are capable of creating.
Productivity tools and “hacks” can help to create more space in your day for that creative potential.
But you’re only prolific when you use that creative potential and actually create something in abundance. Like Picasso.
Without prolificacy, productivity is just an empty container – unfulfilling, unfulfilled potential.
What can you be prolific in? What do you want to create in large quantities? What’s important enough to you to start sculpting away, day by day?