Static Made

Instinct and Intuition

Looking back, I can point to many turning points in my life. I consider these instances to be times of great influence and they carry immense impact on the trajectory of my life. More often than not, these moments have been stark absolutes — either this or that, on or off, zeros or ones — and required me to make active choices about my future and the future of those I love.

Within each of these choices may have been middle ground or ways that avoided absolutes, but I overwhelmingly chose to address these decisions in visceral, almost impulsive ways. Those words — visceral and impulsive — carry negative contexts for me, however. I like to think my decision-making process is based on instinct and rooted in intuition.

Instinct has guided me well over the years. For as long as I can remember, my intuition has been strong and it has rarely lead me astray. I’ve left school, quit jobs, embarked on spontaneous travel, married the love of my life, re-enrolled and finished school, shipped risk-laden and unconventional projects, and followed opportunities I wasn’t completely sure I could win or fulfill. All based on instinct.

This isn’t to say contemplation and deep thought have no place in my personal decisions. It’s quite the opposite, actually. Instinct takes over for me after deep thought and contemplation have brought me to a place of insight. Intuition leads me when that fork in the road appears and the only options are to go one way, or the other. Instantly, I feel it deep down in my guts and surrender to the inherent notion about which way is right. I’ll follow that primal directive every time.

Following instinct over analytics might not be the most appropriate approach from a business perspective, but I think it certainly has its place at the conference room table. Professional intuition is an important element in any workplace environment where innovation is a priority.

Personally though, I’ll stay with what’s historically worked for me. I’ll listen to my instinct as the horizon approaches and the next of life’s intersections draws near.

Compulsion and Perfection

Being honest about personal weaknesses can be some of the best medicine for making positive life changes. The acknowledgement of shortcomings and committing to improvement, however, isn’t easy and requires daily diligence.

If you ask the person who knows me best — my wife — to describe me, I’d bet that along with flattering descriptors such as loving and kind, she’d also include some words like compulsive and perfectionist. If I’m being truly honest with myself, she’s right. Compulsion and the unrelenting quest for perfection are two detrimental elements of my personality and regular sources of friction in some of my most valued relationships.

According to GI Joe, knowing is only half the battle. Taking action is the other. After realizing the areas in which we’d like to improve, how can we combat our self-acknowledged personal weaknesses and start making positive changes? I don’t claim to have the prescription, but here are some methods that work for me as I struggle with two personal flaws.

Compulsion

I am extremely compulsive with respect to workflows and lifestyle habits. A few weeks ago when I started on the Paleo, I jumped in feet-first reading as much information as I possibly could and immediately tried to implement the lifestyle into all areas of my life. The instant and complete immersion into a significant lifestyle change not only created internal tension, but also created a somewhat tense environment between me and people I love.

For example, once I decided to committ, I was all-in with 100% dedication. I started cold turkey by eradicating processed foods such as bread, dairy and sugar from my diet. Meals at home proved to be difficult, as did meals out. My wife couldn’t understand why I wanted to make a separate dinner from the meal the rest of the family was eating. Why couldn’t I just participate in moderation or ease into it, she would ask.

My compulsion doesn’t exclusively relate to my dietary habits, but it also touches nearly every other aspect of my life from producing this website to home improvement projects. It’s something I’ve been struggling with for as long as I can remember.

Combating Compulsive Behavior

My biggest difficulty when combating compulsion is the acknowledgement that progress can be made through moderate, incremental processes. Being a results-focused and goal-oriented person, my fear is that if I don’t act on something immediately, I will never act. The truth, though, is that I don’t need to completely and totally give up eating bread to make a positive change. Rather, if I moderately limit my intake, over time I will see results.

Similarly, it is unnecessary to stop everything I’m doing and begin crafting an article for this website at the instant inspiration strikes. I’m making a conscious effort to eliminate compulsion by introducing heavy doses of purpose and balance. If easy and efficient processes are in place to capture tasks and ideas for action at a later, more purposeful time, I can act with intention instead of reaction.

The Quest for Perfection

Like compulsion, I find my pursuit of perfection has negative impacts on both internal piece-of-mind and external relationships. My professional pixels must always be in their right place and my personal ducks must always be in their respective rows. Anything less is unacceptable. If I fall short of my perfect goal, I beat myself up beyond belief.

I also have a hard time collaborating or letting go of projects, even with highly capable and extremely intelligent colleagues. I would much rather take something individually from inception to fruition, than relinquish even the smallest portion of control that could impact the outcome of said creative project. This is the case even if it creates an enormous and unhealthy workload.

Admitting Perfection Doesn’t Exist

In order to combat the detriment that is perfectionism, I first need to acknowledge that it is not an absolute. It’s subjective. My concept of perfection varies greatly from your idea of perfection. Realizing this and regularly reaffirming the subjective nature of perfection is the first step in moving toward letting go of the feeble pursuit.

Perfection is a myth. You are chasing a ghost.

I now challenge myself with respect to perfection by actively sharing and asking for input on work that’s in-progress, and participating in collaborative endeavors like the Static Made Artist Series and a new project I will be sharing with you tomorrow.

By challenging myself in these areas, I feel I’m growing. For me, fighting the grips of compulsion and perfectionism is an every-day struggle. However, through actively letting go and focusing on elements that truly matter (moderation, intention, balance and truth), I am making incremental steps toward individual progress.

Waves

Ocean waves embody the balance I strive to achieve throughout my life. They are dependable with respect to their tides, yet random in their frequency and unpredictable in their approach.

Waves are the fingers of the infinite ocean, crafting the stability of land over time. They create because it is inherent within their nature. They eradicate with that same nature.

Tides are both powerful and gentle. They bring and they take. They seek their own level because they know nothing more.

These are the qualities toward which I work.

A Fish Out of Water

Sometimes removing yourself from a situation can work wonders. Having the ability to step back and view a problem from a new perspective — through a lens of clarity — can tremendously impact personal growth.

I’m spending this week on vacation in an undisclosed location with my family. We are completely out of our normal routine and experiencing the world with as little stress as possible. Only two days into our trip, this fresh perspective is already having a great effect on my son.

Elliott has been taking swim lessons for a while now back home. He absolutely loves swimming but he is very afraid to put his face under the water. He’s been afraid of doing this for a long time.

Just yesterday however, while playing around in the pool together, I noticed Elliott taking big breaths and dunking his hole body under the water. While under, he was moving his arms in a breast-stroke fashion and kicking his feet like a motor boat!

When he came up for air, I told him how proud I was that he was trying so hard to swim underwater. He smiled and said how proud his swimming teacher would be too.

When I asked him why he wouldn’t try swimming underwater at home during his swimming lessons, but felt brave enough to try it now, he replied that he felt brave because we were on vacation.

By taking him out of the regimen of a formal class and infusing a high level of low-stress fun, he felt comfortable enough to push his boundaries. He is growing because his concept of what he can and can’t do has been reframed.

This isn’t so much about vacation as it is about staying fresh and looking at things from different angles. It’s huge, not only for children, but for working adults who become consumed by routine and pattern. I’m as guilty with this as the next guy, so I’ll be monitoring it this week and following the lead of my son.

Through the Lens of Perspective

Tis the season for technology. The internet is ablaze with news of the latest hardware, operating systems, capacity, speed and features we haven’t even realized we need. Our pursuit for bigger, better, faster and more is in full-stride and races toward tomorrow.

Progress. Development. Growth. All of these goals are certainly admirable.

But do these external aspirations deserve our internal obsession? Is our attention not better served realizing technological progress is, as with all things material, temporary and absolute truth exists within?

There will always be a newer OS. There will always be a better version of the device I already own. There will always be the next model. Through the quest for progress, technology breeds unnecessary desire. With each centimeter we move, we have a kilometer before us.

The cycle is never-ending, but I must remain vigilant. My journey depends not on distance.

A Regimen for Rising Early

As creative professionals human beings, we all have countless items vying for our finite attention. These attention bullets seem to fly in from all directions and at all times. We have families and careers that rightfully consume the majority of our attention. We have personal responsibilities like paying bills and mowing the lawn. We have the internet and mobile devices whose constant connectivity create persistent layers of distraction throughout our lives.

It’s a popular story. After dedicating the appropriate time and attention to our professional and personal priorities, we’re left with very little gas in our figurative fuel tanks to focus on the extra-curricular activities that round out our personalities. These are the things that make us whole. Some refer to them as hobbies, but they’re the activities we’re passionate about outside of our priorities. Not to quote a horrible 90s movie, but they complete us.

For me, these activities include writing this site, running, sitting meditation and playing the guitar. For you it might be gardening or perhaps golfing or rock climbing.

While activities such as these are vital elements to our happiness, they often play second fiddle to our “real life” responsibilities. Our busy agendas and finite attention capacities squeeze these activities from our daily schedules and create a powerful element of friction between our whole-selves and our soul-fulfilling interests.

Keep Reading →