Day 43: Thursday 9 March
Sometimes something comes along that really nails something you’ve been pondering,
Why do we (so often) need an All Is Lost Moment in our own lives to break through to another level? Can’t we just do it at a happy time? Do we have to push ourselves to the absolute abyss in order for real change to sink in?
I hate to say it, but that seems to be true. Certainly it has been in my own life. And for sure it’s true in fiction.
In fact, we might define “wisdom” as the ability to transform oneself to a higher level WITHOUT going through an All Is Lost moment. Have you done this? Neither have I.
Steven Pressfield
It was Steven’s blog post today “Ego and Self in the All is Lost Moment”
To be fair, I haven’t gone as far as “all is lost” in my thinking, but just dwelling on the fact that sometimes major setbacks are sometimes the fastest way to get where you’re going. Course correcting. Creating the space into which entirely new thinking can be inserted. Whereas the momentum had previously discouraged such new thinking. Thinking requiring a dangerous change of direction at speed.
As I pull my research together I can see a new picture emerging of the profession. One to utilise and inform my work. It’s not that I haven’t looked before but that I haven’t taken the time to look properly. It’s like taking the time to listen to someone without simultaneously formulating what I’m going to say next. It meant I wasn’t listening properly because I had my own opinion I wanted to insert first.
Sometimes we need to heed our own lessons.
So now, after two years, I’m taking the time to listen, to truly hear what I need to.
And use that to shape what I do.
