Free Wheeling…

I’ve got 25 minutes, and I’d like to try an experiment…

Despite the backlog of ideas for posts, I’d like to just sit here, looking at a blank page and come up with something on the spot, primarily using the time I have for content (not editing), and then will publish it when the time’s out, no matter where I am in the post. For my own curiosity, I’m interested in the dormant idea in my head that this might (?) provoke.

2 minutes in, and I’m wondering if the idea will come to me. The urgency to write is creating these words on the page, but this “scarcity”-toned exercise has its costs… my fingers tapping is taking priority over the time to clarify thoughts. There. I have my topic…

A few weeks ago, I heard a great quote — it went something like this: “Speed is achieved, not by the activity of your feet, but by the force of each step.”

A multitude of factors lead us to believe activity = achievement, and much has been written and talked about “scarcity” mindsets in recent years (all primarily boiling down to the fact that we make poor decisions when under the perception of scarcity — from making purchases, to life decisions, to our IQ declining (!!) when we perceive scarcity).

8 minutes in… 17 to go…

Well, I just sat here for two minutes, thinking. So 15 to go…

Now, I’m hyper-aware of the pull to just tap my fingers, and I’m not joking, I’m physically feeling my breath quickening. I’m smiling, and aware of everything I just wrote above (between scarcity and quality decisions), but there is something primal that is happening — a perception of scarcity and ‘desire’ trying to slide into a closing door with light behind it. I don’t know where the door leads, but I sense the light dimming, and each moment is a trade off between activity and patience, between activity and a higher-quality attempt; with both feeling like a gamble, but the former feeling like more of a sure-bet than the latter. It’s quite fascinating to witness this tug and pull inside my mind (and the middle path is to at least write about what’s going on inside my head).

11 minutes to go…

7 minutes to go…

There’s a third factor in deciding whether this was activity or whether it’s a “forceful step”. It’s not just me typing and the clock. There is also the observer (you) that will decide whether this is unnecessary activity. This was a game that I made up, smiling at how the arbitrarily created scarcity felt real. I realize now that the real-ness of it comes from the observer. To disassemble the scarcity of this situation, I can either just decide not to post what this has become — or — I can choose to take the observer out of the equation. Remove the judge? The judge can stay, but I will increasingly try to take on that role myself!

O minutes!

Edit to add: Wow, the anxiousness that this brought on was both unnecessary and very real. Definitely something to take away from this exercise.