We've talked before, about the difference between correlation and causation, and how the mind not only chucks the whole idea into the bin as ‘not important/too much like school’ but also blurs the boundary between the two, in a way that sets us up to fail.
Most recently we talked about how ‘bad’ feelings get lumped in with what's happening:
Giles P Croft
When it looks like BAD STUFF is ‘making us’ FEEL BAD
And a while back, we also looked at the other side of this outside-in coin – when we innocently put our ‘good’ feelings onto something we're doing… which comes with its own particular set of issues:
Giles P Croft
GOOD STUFF is great! Until you become dependent on it, to FEEL GOOD.
And today, I want to look at how both of those relate to making productivity a lot easier. Because we all like to Get Stuff Done™ don't we?
Mood and Quality
I was in conversation with a client, who was asking me about my process of writing, which, strangely enough, I hadn't really given that much thought.
They wanted to know:
- Whether I had a routine
- Where my ideas came from
- How easy or hard it was to write regularly
- Did I do them one at a time, or in batches
- Whether I saw variations in quality, from my perspective.
To which my answers (in brief, here) were:
- Not really, no.
- Life. Can't seem to turn the tap off.
- So much easier than the Giles Ego Construct 📦 had imagined (almost as if it was what I was put on this earth to do)
- Mostly the former, but occasionally the latter (if I do too much of the latter, it's easy to get complacent and forget that I write for a living).
…and then we got to the last one, and that was really interesting for me to consider.
Because there are times when I feel absolutely inspired and what comes out floods the page with content that seems almost pre-written, and has me chuckling away to myself as I'm writing it, thinking “Oh my god, they're so going to love this one!”
And then there are times when I feel absolutely inspired and yet what comes out is a jumbled, incoherent mess, that gets written, re-written and sometimes abandoned entirely.
There are also times when I approach my computer almost in terror, such is the poor state of mind I'm in, and the best I can do is to drag up a meme I stored away for a rainy day, and have done with it.
And then there are times when I'm in a really poor state of mind and as soon as I sit down and start writing, pure unadulterated genius comes pouring out.
And of course what I'm trying to say here is that:
There really does seem to be no correlation whatsoever between how I feel and the quality of what gets written. What shows up, shows up.
Which kind of freaked me out for a while at first, but then I realised was a huge weight off my mind, because all I had to do was show up and write!!
It didn't matter how I felt.
Total game changer (an insight without which, I don't think the Daily Reminders would still be a thing)!
And it's one for you to keep hold of. It will help you, going forwards.
As always, don't believe me – look for the evidence in your own life. See the disconnect between how you feel and what's showing up. It's a correlation at best. (It's not causal, that's for sure.)
Quality and Mood
Of course there are dimensions to this, aren't there?
What's ‘good’ in my eyes in one mood, will be ‘rubbish’ in another – the whole thing's entirely subjective.
(And when I say ‘the whole thing,’ you know I'm not just talking about my writing yeah? I'm talking about all of it – life!)
And as my client wisely pointed out, given the whole separate realities thing, what I (i.e. the Giles Ego Construct 📦) deem to be quality writing may leave others cold.
Gratefully, I'm pleased to report it's usually the other way round: I'll put out something that feels like I could have done so much better… and an hour later, one of you will email me to say it's the best Daily Reminder I've ever written!!
😂
I love you guys, I really do. You keep me going with your enthusiasm, your love for the Daily Reminders and most importantly, your ability to stick a pin in any misconceptions of correlation I might innocently be holding!
Thank you.
💝
Giles
p.s. I'm serious about this being an important one to see – it's pretty life changing to get a handle on not needing to feel a particular way (e.g. enthused, inspired, alert, calm) before showing up and doing the work.