View Full Version : Are we addicted to making progress? Stuck in a rut waiting it out.....
Hi everyone I guess today is venting day. Ive been gone for a few months and this place just revives me with everyones input and advice .I have been feeling progress after baby was born in August of 2105 at first it was just hang on and survive the ride rollercoaster of diapers , bottles and general catching up. After that in January I did massive purge and threw out lots of old stuff to make room for baby and new things. Now Im sort of not seeing out progress but have really been centering myself with meditation and thankfulness. So now Im in stasis where everything is stabilizing. Perhaps I should enjoy and not always be on the move to make progress. I am certainly thankful for stability and the comfort. But its a lot of work and effort to maintain that equilibrium. So I noticed that I only look at the outside progress and not inside.I would like to manage the little time to myself I have to paint or draw, to perhaps make progress in artistic self expression. Got my hands full but I guess the next step will be creative output/ artistic progress. Any similar experiences?Otherwise I think I will wait it out so to speak until inspiration or need hits.
As a culture I would say we are indeed addicted to progress.
The Myth of Progress...
ApatheticNoMore
6-3-16, 1:52am
yea probably some of the addiction to progress going on.
But as for time and not having enough to do everything, I just realize there is a lot I can not do, that only people with lots of time can, and no matter how i push to get the most done with time, it's just not my situation, I don't have a lot of time.
I recall those days! I actually pushed really really hard to write half a novel. I had a writing group, I worked with my kids to carve out writing time, I kinda kicked a**. Well it was also pushed issues in my marriage (with other factors) and I ended up divorced. Haven't touched the novel in 12 years. I have had some things bringing that back up in other ways as well. But for the last 12 years I have had to accept that I cannot write a novel right now, and I worry that I never will get back to writing.
American culture is freakin insidious with this IMHO. We glorify the people who get it ALL done, and that is rare. It is perfectly normal to understand your limits and make some peace with that but there is not a lot of support for it. So I stopped talking about some of the things I would like to do but can't right now because I simply don't have time (and yeah, I am not willing to 'make the sacrifice' because I have some idea of the cost). So I encourage you to find ways to support yourself in this reality, watch your language around it as well. We can trash talk ourselves when we think we should be able to do things and they are not reasonable. Does that help?
It may be trite, but I think there is a spectrum of personal "progress". On the one end, say, the tennis or golf phenom who got there at the cost of a childhood so dedicated to one activity as to warp the person for life. On the other are the people so dedicated to the art of squandering potential that you can almost view their wasted life as a sort of masterwork of performance art. Like most of life, probably the best approach is to pursue it up to one or two clicks past your comfort level just to stay in a reasonable growth mode short of obsession.
I'm reminded of an ad from 30(?)ish years ago. Lady singing "I can bring home the bacon, fry it up in a pan, and still never let you forget you're a man." while she's dancing around half dressed for work, waving around a frying pan. According to that ad all you need to do to be super productive is wear the right perfume. Maybe try that and see how it works out for you. j/k But I think my point is that you can only do what you can do. Our culture seems to value goals and "getting stuff done". Probably a holdover from the whole protestant work ethic thing. Personally I've put as one of my top priorities getting a good night's sleep. If I can accomplish that every day then I figure everything else will get done that much easier. And if it doesn't then at least I'm not grumpy from too little sleep.
And all things have their "time". I met the most wonderful lady who wrote her first novel at 69. She wrote 5 great novels in the next 5 years. I have an exercise class with a senior champion table tennis player who is over 75. My instructor at exercise is 69.
There are times for kids, time for ourselves, time for whatever. But maybe not all at one time?
I'm reminded of an ad from 30(?)ish years ago. Lady singing "I can bring home the bacon, fry it up in a pan, and still never let you forget you're a man." while she's dancing around half dressed for work, waving around a frying pan. According to that ad all you need to do to be super productive is wear the right perfume. Maybe try that and see how it works out for you.
Wow... I really missed a golden era. Life surely was better then, and I bet the food tasted better too.
Wow... I really missed a golden era. Life surely was better then, and I bet the food tasted better too.
I'm sure that bacon she made tasted delicious! Although I hope she finished undressing from work before she cooked it. Otherwise she was going to have to ad "and made a trip to the dry cleaners" to the list of accomplishments she was singing about.
It may be trite, but I think there is a spectrum of personal "progress". On the one end, say, the tennis or golf phenom who got there at the cost of a childhood so dedicated to one activity as to warp the person for life. On the other are the people so dedicated to the art of squandering potential that you can almost view their wasted life as a sort of masterwork of performance art. Like most of life, probably the best approach is to pursue it up to one or two clicks past your comfort level just to stay in a reasonable growth mode short of obsession.
That would be me--the only thing I'm a success at is underachieving. My only artwork is (sad) performance art.
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