"When you try to stay on the surface of the water, you sink; but when you try to sink, you float"
That’s Alan Watts talking about the old concept of "backwards law," the idea that the more you try to get something, the more you end up pushing it away.
And this applies so nicely to academia as well.
If you’re desperate trying to be successful, you’ll just end up not being successful because there’s always a next level of success.
If you’re desperate trying to publish more papers, you’ll just end up wanting more papers after the next batch of more papers is published, as more is always more.
If you’re framing your goals as trying to avoid something, you’ll just notice more and more of that something around you as your brain makes it more visible for you so you can avoid it (and paradoxically end up noticing more of it).
And this morning I found myself thinking about how much of our daily work is wasted too, due to the backwards law.
We spend so much time trying to engineer motivation before we take action. We read, organise apps, arrange meetings, read literature, to get ready to start, to take action.
And doing that, we simply get further from the perfect condition itself, which is starting itself.
Motivation follows action.
Not the other way around.
Action creates motivation automatically.
Plenty of boring science supports this too. Not going to dive into that here. But if there’s something you want to master, it’s starting. And calling yourself out when you’re falling into the planning trap instead of just starting.
Just start.
Whatever you’re supposed to be working on.
Sit down and write down a word.
The rest comes easy.
If nothing else, I hope this short email reminds you to close the email client and actually work on something that is meaningful to you. Close Slack and Teams as well, and just write one sentence.
And allow yourself to feel the pull of that work.
Simo