Getting comfortable with change
I was thinking about this recently and realized that one of the hardest parts of implementing change is actually being comfortable with it. It struck me as a bit odd, for even if it would be good, there is always some amount of uncertainty associated with change. It is pretty popular to say that one won't grow unless one leaves their comfort zone, but would it not be good to find ways to get comfortable with making oneself uncomfortable?
Very cool insight, Marcus.
Back in my more hardcore Zen days, I lived for putting myself in uncomfortable situations for purposes of personal growth.
Ice baths (legit ice bought from the gas station), 6-hour+ long sesshin Zen Meditation sessions, crazy long 4 hour plus runs, fruitarian diets, etc. A real nut job in Durango, Colorado (and Chicago). But hey, I met you, so at least it was worth it!
What I like about your insight however is this idea of uncertainty. Fear of the unknown. There is also fear of failure and the real difficult beast of fear of success! Sounds crazy, but a lot of self-sabotage stems from not wanting change at all. See the greek term of akrasia for more details.
But just think about all that has happened since we founded the IDT Clan. I feel like we have all helped each other change for the better in some pretty amazing ways!
Back in my more hardcore Zen days, I lived for putting myself in uncomfortable situations for purposes of personal growth.
Ice baths (legit ice bought from the gas station), 6-hour+ long sesshin Zen Meditation sessions, crazy long 4 hour plus runs, fruitarian diets, etc. A real nut job in Durango, Colorado (and Chicago). But hey, I met you, so at least it was worth it!
What I like about your insight however is this idea of uncertainty. Fear of the unknown. There is also fear of failure and the real difficult beast of fear of success! Sounds crazy, but a lot of self-sabotage stems from not wanting change at all. See the greek term of akrasia for more details.
But just think about all that has happened since we founded the IDT Clan. I feel like we have all helped each other change for the better in some pretty amazing ways!
I hadn't considered the fear of success, but it really does seem like any change at all is something that people are resistant to, even if they want to have change! I wonder if there is a term for it, something like inertia, but for situations outside of physics. Zen really seems rather intense, not that that has to be a bad thing. It seems to be similar in some ways to stoicism, but definitely not in all ways. Was hitch-hiking up the hill and accepting a ride from a crazy guy with a plastic shrunken head hanging from his mirror part of your zen activities in getting out of your comfort zone?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akrasia
Conscious self-sabotage and procrastination. Freakin' Ancient Greeks have a term for everything!
I'm working on combining everything into a Productivity Equation involving the three layers of change (R, Results, P, Processes (consisting of the sum of H, i+1 Habits and A, i+1 ABC Actions), I, Identities) to help...stay tuned...
Conscious self-sabotage and procrastination. Freakin' Ancient Greeks have a term for everything!
I'm working on combining everything into a Productivity Equation involving the three layers of change (R, Results, P, Processes (consisting of the sum of H, i+1 Habits and A, i+1 ABC Actions), I, Identities) to help...stay tuned...
- ACA Productivity Equation.gif (753 Bytes) Viewed 21 times
I definitely want to read up on that, thanks for the link! It would be really cool to have a quantifiable way to describe how productive one is, would be awesome to one day be able to use it to really zero in on areas that are causing one the most trouble! Would one need to test and fine tune the equation to really dial it in? Once you had a functional equation that has good predictive power would you be able to integrate and differentiate using it in order to find surprising connections one would not otherwise think of?
For now, such an equation is more useful as a planning tool than anything quantifiable. However, I've already considered it a lot in relation to each layer of change and how it fits into our goals process, what it means when any of the variables fall to 1 (current state, 100%), etc.
Similar to the MOTIVATION equation that floats around. More of a qualitative tool used for personal growth to get someone unstuck. However, motivation is worthless without discipline, and thats where I think our productivity equation will shine.
Similar to the MOTIVATION equation that floats around. More of a qualitative tool used for personal growth to get someone unstuck. However, motivation is worthless without discipline, and thats where I think our productivity equation will shine.