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Passion has little to do with fun.

Passion should not be mistaken for fun, or “doing what you love”. It is an entirely different concept that is well worth looking into. I think this common misconception may be the reason so few find their passion, and therefore even fewer still live them.

Let’s start with the definition, and the etymology of the word passion :

Etymology: being acted upon, from Latin pati, to suffer. It has since evolved to objects of desire or deep interest, but continues to suggest ungovernability (being a slave to one’s passions).

Ancient meaning of words can teach us a lot. In this case it reminds us that passion has the upper hand. When it gets a hold, it controls us. And it isn’t always kind. Fun has little to do with it. Pain and abnegation do.

Of course there is more to it than that. If passion was just suffering, who would want it?

Passion is kindled by results.

Passion develops when progress is made. The first time you practice an activity with flow, or an unusual ease, grace and precision that you can’t explain, you might just have found a passion in the making. Before this first epiphany, you are learning the ropes, and there is little pleasure in that. The period of time it takes to experience it is when it is most likely that you will quit. That may be because that activity isn’t suited for you, or that you haven’t given it enough time.

That first epiphany may motivate you enough to continue searching, longing for another. You learn and practice more. Interest becomes passion. Gradually. Sometimes slowly.

Passionate writers sweat blood from their foreheads. They don’t want to sit down and write, but with experience, and the first experiences of flow, feel compelled to do so.

Passionate athletes (not necessarily professional) endure pain and injury. They don’t feel like training daily, or taking a train to show up at a competition.

Passion is Motivated by Purpose.

Passion may be for harmony, or beauty, or teaching, or being of service… Since it is driven by purpose, it has little to do with the type of activity, or the tools you use to accomplish it. Passionate musicians therefore often play more than one instrument. Passionate teachers have a teaching position, but also write books and essays, as well as conduct research, run a website and hold seminars. Passionate artists driven by a quest for beauty aren’t just painters, but sometimes also sculptors. Passion for service is achieved by some through volontary work,  while others will prefer business with a focus on employment and better working conditions.

Some choose just one means of achieving their passion’s purpose, but could very well have chosen another.

The passion’s purpose is rarely conscious. It sometimes reveals itself with time. It may help to try to analyze why you are passionate about something, or just add to the confusion…

One Passion, or Several?

Passion being about purpose much more than it is about a specific activity, there are oftentimes more ways than one to fulfill them. Many passionate musicians master several musical instruments. Many industry leaders develop trades in different markets.

And when you hit a roadblock with one, the answer can simply be to switch to another, and leave yourself time to work out the solution for the first. As long as you don’t stray too far (forget all about it) you may find that the answer is there just waiting for you when you come back to it.

This past article explores the subconscious resolution of problems.

You may also simply have found an original way to deal with it while exercising the other one.

Peregrine's Song - 118 scripts, 372 image files, 13 MB. Many sleepless nights (with work the next day).

Why the heck did I spend nights creating this? I still have no idea. I just had to. But the hours of flow came at the cost of more hours still of gritted frustration.

Why 20 years of karate? For the few times that felt like flying, and despite injury and suffocation.

Why this blog? Or the others? Same answer.

Maybe I’ll see it all come to a logical conclusion someday.

Ask Nico Di Mattia why the painting…

Or any engaged actor, politician, artist, humanitarian, or even a person that lives a seemingly normal job with passion and they may or may not be really able to explain why. But they will almost always tell you it isn’t all fun and games. Especially in the early, learning stages.

Finding Your Passion is Selfish… And Selfless.

Passion attracts your focus in such a way that it distracts you, or sometimes totally takes your attention away from anything else. Namely others. Family, friends, duties of all sorts become secondary at best. In this sense living your passion is a selfish act. It can keep you away from home, make you inefficient at work (given your work and passion are not one and the same).

Yet passion aims at a greater good. It could care less about marketing and sales. It is driven by a purpose, and that purpose isn’t about your interests (but it doesn’t necessarily mean that they are incompatible).

Passion requires specific abilities, strengths, instinct and talent.

Not everyone can develop a passion for music. It requires an ear and sensitivity. It requires physical attributes (hand morphology is crucial to play the piano or the violin). You do not choose your passion. You find it, and to find it, you need to experience that first epiphany. It isn’t going to happen if you have no talent for the discipline in question, so that practice does not lead to a passion. If you find yourself completely unable to make progress, then you’ve probably taken the wrong road.

Instinct can give indications of which activity to choose. Your instincts. Not someone else’s. If you sense early on that with practice you can achieve a “eureka” moment then you are on the right track. If not you may not have tried enough, or you may have tried something that isn’t for you.

Passion doesn’t provide energy, it requires it. Lots of it.

Passion will drain you of your energy. It will keep you up at night. It will have your mind reeling in search of ways to accomplish itself. That may lead you to believe that it energizes you. But it does not provide that energy. Passion takes control of you, and forces you to feed it. 

That energy needs to be there in the first place. Strength helps.

Passion wears you out, and when comes the time when you have no energy left to give it, you may think you’ve simply lost interest or decide to take a break. If that break becomes permanent, it may be that you’ve given up before achieving your passion’s purpose.

After recovery you may be reluctant to relive the same experience that you mistook for a mistake or a failure and try a new one. You find another that sparks interest and decide to test this one to see if it carries you longer. It may be a different way to achieve the same purpose. And it will only carry you longer if it is also a passion, if you have completely recovered from the previous, and have more energy to give it.

But it may also be that you have achieved your passion’s purpose, and that that purpose was only the first step towards achieving a larger one. You may have learned something essential from that experience that you will need to take the next step.

Passion Requires Problem Solving, Conscious or Not.

You may hit a roadblock. You cannot figure out how to make further progress. And the harder you try, the more steps you take… backwards. So you may quit, and with time forget. Perhaps you should have just taken a break, put the problem in the back of your head but be prepared to come back to it, letting your subconscious figure it out. Because it does that. My past article on productivity block goes into more detail on this point.

Losing interest in an activity doesn’t necessarily mean that activity was a mistake. Sometimes quiting is a mistake because burnout is mistaken for loss of interest.  One of the aspects of The Concert that makes it a compelling film is that it shows that a passion may be set aside for thirty years, and still be there waiting for you.

But quiting isn’t necessarily a mistake. The purpose may be accomplished so that a new, larger one may be undertaken. Or the choice may simply have been a poor one.

Life isn’t simple after all.

Passion is scary.

You instinctively know a passion will take you for a rough ride. This is why finding your passion is not about “trying new things”, but going for things that both attract you and take you out of your comfort zone until sufficient progress has been made.

Passion isn’t necessarily about time spent on an activity either.

Many think they have a passion for video games or movies. Sometimes they do, when those games and films have a purpose. It may lead them to creating their own, or practice leadership by creating and managing MMORPG guilds, or develop the sensitivity they will need to learn to act, or other purposes still. But for many others those passtimes are in fact addictions that allow them to escape reality.

None can judge from the outside.

Passion is Insane.

At least it looks that way from the average spectator’s eye. It lacks conventional wisdom. That spectator will wonder how the passionate can have so little regard for their own well-being and sometimes mistake it for laziness, immaturity or lack of drive.

When will those darned passionate people finally have the sense to make something of themselves?

Those that go far enough do, when they’ve started truly accomplishing that passion’s purpose: when the harmony, beauty, or service is there, or within reach.

Passion is an Act of Faith.

How can it be otherwise when passion takes your energy and focus and has no regards for your well-being? Everything about passion suggests failure, bankruptcy, loneliness and hardships of all shapes and sizes. Yet those that find their passion and give it the energy it requires seem to have a knack for falling on their feet. Failure befalls those that hesitate, backtrack and let doubt take over. Those that succeed go all out, for as long as it takes.

People living their passion disregard their fear and stay the course, however unreasonable it may seem. And they don’t even know why. They have faith in the vision that only becomes clearer as they slowly reach its purpose. At first they have faith in there even being a vision because they are yet to see it. This is why they will always fail, in the early stages, to clearly explain what they are doing, and why.

They learn to believe that there is nothing to fear, because by abiding to their passion they are living in correlation with their purpose. They believe in a world order that depends on their finding their place and playing their part. They believe that ignoring their calling harms that world order, and that it will somehow preserve them if they stay the course. They believe that the challenges they are facing were meant for them to be overcome, and aren’t beyond their ability. They believe that they are not truly alone. They believe that what they are risking has little value compared to what they will gain.

Passion is Recommended.

For all the struggle, hardship, fear, doubt, devoted time and effort, those that find and live their passion(s) wouldn’t have it any other way.

Chi Kung now actually has scientific backing. Read this!

I stumbled on Chi Kung (Qi Gong) purely by accident.

When I was a college student in B&A at the Grenoble Graduate School of Business, I was on the lookout for anything to make a bit of extra change.

Ah, the student life.

One of the opportunities I came accross was a translation job offered by a startup esoteric publishing company. They had acquired publishing rights in French to The Tao and the Tree of Life by Steven Yudelove.

Basically, a book about Chi Kung, and related exercises.

Translating a 300 page book (granted, with plentiful  illustrations) for a few hundred dollars (actually, 4000 francs) wasn’t appealing to many in the rather restricted bilingual circle of students, so I got the job.

That student life money was far from being the only benefit from this job. The knowledge gained in this field, even if only “academic”, or learned in a book, was a benefit I still carry to this day.

Three Levels of Training

Chi (life force or vital energy) Kung (skill developped through steady practice) is the process of harnessing energy for personal development and healing.

The first level of practice consists in enhancing your physical condition. This is why I consider chi kung to be a good addition to practices mentioned earlier – using the free weight loss plan to understand weight management and apply its principles to get fit, and enrolling in a martial art class (with a slight preference for shotokan karate, although I remain open-minded and would understand if you prefered another :)).

Having taken these steps should get you past the first level of chi kung training quickly, and allow you to experience the second one easily.

The second level of practice consists in regulating the flow of energy through visualization.

This is where things get very interesting. At this stage anyone can experience the benefits (feel them). I will describe a simple exercise that literally feels like a back massage when used on a tense day. Keep in mind that I am a typically western practicionner (read beginner) and yet have been able to reach concrete results through a little practice.

The third level of practice connects mind and soul to energy through trances. This is beyond me, and in all honesty will probably always be. But it doesn’t matter. My goal isn’t to be able to rival with taoist experts or to develop healing powers worthy of a science-fiction character. I am very pleased with the results I have accomplished and would be content to just maintain them.

Anyone can do the same!

Core Principles

The Existence of Energy in All Things

The existence of Chi in all things, each square inch throughout the world and universe is the underlying principle that makes chi kung possible.

The incredible news is that the believing in the existence of a pervading energy is no longer a pure act of faith, or something that can only be sensed intuitively. Quantum physics, a field which started with Einstein’s proposition of the existence of Zero Point Energy , and which has since evolved towards practical nanotechnological applications, have demonstrated the existence of energy in all things and places to be a fact. Zero point energy refers to the lowest possible amount of energy (not being zero, even in a vacuum).

Pertaining to medicine, the implications of energy in cellular determination, growth and function are being considered since the demonstration of the existence of biophotons  in the 1950’s, although applications are yet to have been scientifically recognized.

It has moreover been established that DNA acts as an energy “superconductor”.

This gives credit at least to the existence of energy that was intuitively sensed by chinese medicine practitionners for the past 5000 years. Knowing this allows even the most skeptical to open their minds to the first stages of practice whereas rejection of “such nonsense” would have typically led to not experiencing anything at all.

The Possibility of Harnessing Energy Through Visualization.

The final necessary step to accept giving the practice of Chi Kung at least the benefit of the doubt is to be able to accept that energy can respond to visualization. This is where the demonstrated existence of biophotons can help. If each of the body’s cells and DNA emit such radiations, then admitting to the possibility that this energy, inherent to our bodies, can respond to thought becomes a smaller leap of faith.

Experiencing your first “back massage” through visualization should do the rest.

The 8 Meridians.

Meridians  can be described as energy canals. They are energy pathways between two points, through which it can more easily navigate than between two points where there are none.

The first of the two most important, called Du Mai, runs from the perineum, over the head and down to the upper lip. The second, called Ren, runs down the front of the body from the lower lip back to the perineum.

The two associate to become a loop. A healthy body is said to have no obstruction in the circulation of energy through this loop, as all other meridians connect to it at some point or other.

The first goal once the second stage of practice is reached is to visualize, and thus cause, free circulation of energy in this loop.

Energy Storage.

Just above the perineum, in the lower midsection is where the Tan Tien , or energy storage is located.

The association of the two major meridians with the Tan Tien, as well as being open to the existence of chi, and your power to guide it through visualization are enough to give your first, and most important chi kung exercise a try.

Your First Chi Kung exercise.

Again, this uses visualization. This makes it a “second level” exercise that requires minimal physical fitness.

The good news is if fitness or weight is a problem you will find increasing resources in the strength section to meet your goals in that field!

First, Visualize Energy in the Tan Tien, or Storage Well.

We’ve seen that energy is stored in the belly, just above the perineum. You can “activate” it by closing your eyes, regulating your breathing and visualizing something in the likes of a whirlpool in that area.

Continue to control your breathing and feel yourself relaxing as you do this.

Then Give Form to Energy that Will Travel Through the Two Major Meridians.

Visualize a spot of red light taking form within the whirlpool. See it grow in intensity as it gathers energy that surrounds it.

Now visualize it moving down to the perineum, then up the spine to the top of your head, then down to the upper lip. Visualizing the energy there should make you salivate a little.

Visualize your saliva radiating with the energy and swallow. Visualize the energy travelling back down to the Tan Tien.

Repeat this process no more than three times and pay attention to how you are feeling. Personally, I am especially sensitive to the energy travelling up my spine. This is when I get the sensation I mentioned that is comparable to a back massage when I am tense.

If I don’t feel it much, then I know I am not too tense. But when I am, the feeling of relaxation is amazing!

Further Applications of Energy.

Chi Kung isn’t the only application derived from the existence of pervading energy and your thoughts’ ability to control it through visualization. Such other applications include “The Science of Getting Rich” by Wallace D. Wattles. This book (now public domain) describes how the same underlying principles as the ones supporting the practice of Chi Kung allow you to create your own reality and attract wealth and abundance.

Marelisa Fábrega wrote a detailed account on this book that spans over four articles. This links to the fourth one, which in turn links to the first three. This should make it easy for you to access them (darn those blogs and their clueless navigation ).

You will see that even western civilization has intuitively sensed the existence of “Chi”, which from one culture to the next has been referred to using different names and concepts (Ki in Japan, magnetism…).

Just part of the ugliness.

This post isn’t about teaching you how to quit smoking, it is about teaching myself. As always you are welcome to learn along with me.

It worked for weight loss, so why not use the same method again.

Explore, Nurture, Understand, Invent, Plan, Implement, Refine, Invent more, Plan better, Implement again (please see my about page if you haven’t yet).

This post took a while in the making, but not so much because of technical difficulty (although the theory isn’t nearly as simple as many sources make it out to be). The reason it took time is that in the back of my mind, I knew clicking on ‘Publish’ would be the start of my personal war against…

The death sticks.

It’s high time.

I would like to thank Oscar for his post, which “planted the seed” again when I read it a couple weeks ago. It centers around his success with the Allen Carr method. If you haven’t heard about that method, you may be lucky enough that it works for you as well. The following video will give you the basics.

If you think there is something to it, why not buy the book from Oscar’s Amazon link and help him out. I am not going to link to it, it didn’t work for me (I tried it years ago).

It may be all you need, if you’re lucky.

The rest of this post will aim to explain just why it may not be the case. Late scientific developments reveal that nicotine addiction isn’t the same for everyone. There are different smoker profiles (behavior and genetics). Some will find it easy to quit using the Allen Carr method.

Darn luck, I’m not one of them. Let’s find out why.

The Science of Tobacco Addiction.

Nicotine  starts a process that leads to the secretion of a rather long list of chemical transmitters, the most important of which is dopamine. Dopamine stimulates the brain’s reward circuits. These are responsible for behavioral patterns. They cause psychological addiction, using natural habit forming processes that make positive reinforcement training efficient.

But in itself this process is only slightly addictive.

It is the combination of the effects of nicotine with those of harman and norharman that can potentially multiply the addictive effects.

These two molecules are side-effects of tobacco combustion. They are, like certain types of anti-depressants, monoamine oxidase inhibitors. Their effect is to inhibit the breaking down of molecules such as… dopamine. This results in much longer half-life, and a much longer lasting psychological imprint of dopamine in the reward circuits.

This class of anti-depressants does not have the same effect on everyone. There is a certain degree of sensitivity that largely depends on genetics. In short, if you are, let’s say immune to these inhibitors (little or no interference with the dopamine breakdown process), then your addiction to cigarettes is much, much slighter than if you are very sensitive to them (dopamine sticks around much longer).

Increased Reward Pathway Sensitivity.

A chain of compensatory effects triggered by nicotine leads to a higher sensitivity to reward pathways. Other drugs like heroin or cocaine have the opposite effect.

This makes heroin and cocaine addiction more violent. They make it much more difficult to substitute their psychological effect with anything else that triggers an efficient reward reaction, because your brain’s ability to trigger that reward reaction has been significantly damaged. In short, one of the direct effects of heroin or cocaine is to make it much more difficult to replace their artificial high with a more natural one.

Fortunately (and unfortunately) this isn’t the case with nicotine.

Fortunately because substitutes to smoking are more efficient. Unfortunately because the effect of nicotine itself on reward pathways (which are more sensitive) increase with time, strengthening the psychological addiction.

Also unfortunately because one of the most common substitutes to cigarettes for ex-smokers is comfort food (it triggers a stronger reward response because reward pathway sensitivity has been previously increased by nicotine). This partly explain why they gain weight.

More about weight gain.

Using food as a substitute for nicotine isn’t the only explanation for weight gain caused by cigarette withdrawal.

Nicotine actually increases the body’s metabolism, which can account for 2-300 extra calories burned each day. This leads to 2 extra pounds a month if dieting or exercise patterns don’t change when that effect is lost due to smoking cessation.

I don’t mean to provide anyone with an excuse to continue smoking, but I am. So let’s debunk that right now. You have a very effective, free weight loss plan on this very site.

No more excuses.

Additives to cigarettes that make you more addicted.

Not all cigarettes are created equal. Some tobacco companies have made them both more efficient, and more lethal.

Ammonia.

Ammonia has been added to most cigarette brands to lower the pH of cigarette smoke, thus making it more volatille. The effects of this strategy is to substantially speed up nicotine transport to the brain.

While it should take 7 minutes for nicotine to reach the brain and take effect, ammonia makes it close to instantaneous.

This is no small thing.

(Since ammonia stinks, it has caused the need to add flavor agents as well).

Theobromine.

Theobromine  is extracted from cocoa, and its effects are the dilatation of broncholites. This increases the exchange surface between blood vessels and the lungs, and causes the smoker to absorb higher amounts of nicotine, ammonia, and the rest of the 4000 toxic chemicals found in cigarette smoke.

Note: these two substances are not in the natural form of tobacco. They are intentionally added to increase addiction.

Strategy.

This is the extent of my technical knowledge on the composition and effects of cigarette smoke. I think it is enough to actually understand the problem.

The next step, invent, is tricky business. First, I have come to realize that there is no easy solution. If you have high sensitivity to monoamine oxidase inhibitors (like me), cigarette withdrawal is going to be a rough ride.

Reminder: these inhibitors have allowed dopamine, secreted as a result of nicotine, to remain in your brain much longer than it should have with each cigarette. This increased the addictive potency of nicotine.

But there are two ways to make it much easier (but not quite as easy as I would like it to be).

Change cigarette brands.

Ammonia and theobromine make things worse, so let’s kick them out. There are several tobacco brands out there that advertise their “no additives” policy on their cartons. I will not name them, as the point of this post is obviously not to promote any cigarette brand, but there is a good chance you know about them already. If not, you will find them easily if you look for them.

Expect to want to smoke more in the beginning as a result of changing to one of those brands.

Take advantage of the increased reward pathway sensitivity.

I don’t think ex-smokers choose comfort food as a substitute consciously. It just happens to be the most readily available for most. Be aware that nicotine has gifted you with at least this much: sensitivity to anything that activates a reward pathway.

Like the endorphins secreted after exercising.

Time to review our choice of habits.

Don’t count on nicotine substitutes.

If you have a strong addiction, chances are that is due to a high sensitivity to harman and norharman (the monoamine oxidase inhibitors). There won’t be any in the patches, gums or inhalers.

They can still help, but following the logic of the lingering of dopamine as the cause of stronger addiction, patches will be more effective (constant, steady supply) than gums or inhalers (one-time hits that will be quickly broken down without the inhibitors).

Further down that same logic, causing dopamine to linger seems like a great way to feed the addiction (Allen Carr would be right in that sense).

Don’t feel guilty.

The key for this is to understand that some have it easier than others, and why. That is kind of a liberation in itself.

If you’ve ever wondered why you couldn’t, while knowing people that could, it might have made you feel like &#@. Chances are harman and norharman really are making it much harder for you.

Don’t expect a miracle, it doesn’t exist and it never will.

I’ve been guilty of this for years. “This isn’t a good time” or “I’ll find something that works later”. It will never be a good time. There never will be anything that works.

If quitting smoking is painful today, it will be even worse tomorrow (even more addicted). Now is as good a time as any to get it over with.

So let’s bite the bullet now so we don’t have to later.

So this is what I am going to try.

- Change brands (done).
- Increase exercise (taking advantage of the known effect of endorphins on reward pathways, which have been rendered more sensitive by nicotine).
- Quit on September 30th 2009. Hopefully the brand change will have taken effect. If not, too bad. It’s going to be hell.
- Accountability: Now I am going to make a big fool of myself if I don’t quit, won’t I?

If you think this page can help people you know, or even people you don’t know quit smoking or not start, please share as you see fit.

A few days ago I purchased and read Marelisa Fábrega’s ebook entitled How to Be More Creative – A Handbook for Alchemists.

The best books to read aren’t necessarily nation-wide best sellers. That does not make Marelisa an amateur, she is a popular blogger on the creativity theme and has years worth of research, leisure reading, writing and practice on the subject. She also has top-rated Squidoo lenses (<100) and a long-time readership.

Three Things that Stand Out.

The first is the writing. Marelisa is from Panama, so one can only assume that English isn’t her native language. It isn’t mine either, but my writing is nothing special. You can come back and check on that once in a while for the next few years, I will surely get better

Content is great, but when it is well written, it permeates. You remember more, are struck with more images, and ultimately are able to apply more without having to reread.

Nonetheless, content there is, and a lot of it, so printing and binding the ebook, as well as interacting with it as instructed is highly recommended.

Then there are the references. Where else can you expect to learn creativity secrets and insights from many great minds as Mark Twain, Isaac Asimov, Guy Kawasaki, Stephen King, Leonardo da Vinci, Machiavelli… And many others I hadn’t ever heard about. If you were to search the internet for such wide-ranging views on creativity, you would miss out on many.

There are also a heap of online references. Links to interactive tools and exercises, as well as further content sources that illustrate her own. Great finds for future exploration that you would miss otherwise, and that would be a shame.

Then comes the technique. You’ll come back often to explore further and apply it, because it is fun and rewarding. A few days isn’t nearly enough for me to describe the full potential, but I have made great progress already. For this blog alone, as well as my other projects, ideas and actions have been flowing easier, and I see things going much further as time passes.

Like many great resources, this is one you will want to keep close by if you have a mind to doing more, better things in the near future.

Click here to visit Abundance Blog at Marelisa Online. and get your own handbook for alchemists!

Remember that alchemists were those that turned lead into gold. Learn to create value for yourself, and others, with just what is available to you. Regardless of how insignificant it may seem at first, you have more potential than you think!

Puppy prepared to play!

 Don’t underestimate the power of a playful break!

Just a stick will do for a few good laughs.

When one of those breaks ends, the following hours of work will be more creative, and more productive. It never fails!

Enjoyed this post? Please take a minute to browse the tools that make me better. They will work for you too, so buying one is a great win-win way to support this site!

If this is your first visit, have a good look around! Lots of fun, creativity, productivity… And subscribe for upcoming posts – there is a lot more coming!

Productivity block and how to lift it.

Why is it some days action flows naturally while others we feel like we weigh a ton? What exactly is that weight, and how to drop it so you can carry on?

There isn’t one clear-cut reason. There are several possibilities, and chances are they are all at play to some extent. We’ll see that while there is always a way to drop the weight, it isn’t necessarily productive to do so. Sometimes it is there for good reasons.

Understand the slump, then work with the positive aspects to speed them up. Bypass the negative ones: those that are costing you time and energy without the benefit.

Whatever the cause, Z Planner and my productivity tool recommendations can make the difference. Moreover, as always, understanding the problem is the best first step to take to find the solution.

The slump can be positive.

My aunt is a psychologist. I had a very interesting conversation with her years ago when she said something that stuck with me ever since.

“Even when you are doing nothing, you are creating.”

It will come to no surprise to you that much of your work is done, or at least prepared, at a subconscious level. This is only true for things that you strive to accomplish. I am talking about goals that are your own. Those are the ones that implicate you, mind body and soul.

It is much less applicable to things you do because you are told to, or were led to believe that you had to. Those tasks may indeed need to be done (not getting fired, divorced, written off a will…), but will only implicate you at a subconscious level if you are dedicated to seeing it through.

You subconsciously sort out the best way to achieve a goal, given a goal is set that you want to achieve. If that goal is technically difficult to achieve, you will feel stuck as long as it takes for your subconscious mind to have set the course, and brought that plan to your conscious mind.

Rushing it will lead to a less than perfect plan. Waiting it out will probably lead to eternal procrastination. There has to be a compromise.

Your options, depending on the situation.

Option one: going with what you’ve got, and letting your subconscious know it.

I find it extremely effective to tell myself: I haven’t figured it all out yet, but I have a good enough plan to get started.

Count on yourself to find the missing pieces as you go along.

By doing this, you are communicating with your subconscious, telling it you think it has done its job and that you want to take the lead. It will continue working with you as you go along. More importantly, it will stop blocking you on the (sometimes) false pretense that you first need to find a better way.

Your first steps will determine if you really did need further preparation (option 2), or if things are going well enough to see things through all the way.

Option two: help your subconscious work it out faster.

Although lack of preparation can be an illusion, it can also be very real. If you aren’t ready, then you can decide to stay in the preparatory phase, and help yourself out.

Once again, the key is being aware that you are subconsciously working out a plan. Option two is simply deciding that that plan needs some work, and that you can act to get that work done faster.

Task breakdown is an incredibly effective way to do this. Create a Z Planner project. Use the task breakdown feature to work out a plan. Then create the same project again, with a different name. Make another task tree.

If things come out differently, then you may want to give yourself more time. Move on to something else, and give that particular goal some more time for processing. Rest assured, by running the task breakdown, you’ve sped things along and made progress. The next time around may be the right time for actual production.

Perfectionism.

It is very fashionable to call oneself a perfectionist. Most people consider it a positive trait. It is the best excuse for procrastination that was ever invented.

Your subconscious may block you because it hasn’t figured things out, and doesn’t want to go into the unknown (the fear, always the fear). Once this becomes a habit, a common manifestation of this habit is to blame it on perfectionism. Convince others of this if you like, but do not allow yourself to believe it. Your project may need further preparation and thinking before actual production can take place, but be sure you honestly ask yourself if it is really the case.

Laziness.

I honestly believe laziness does not exist. Fear, lack of purpose, or just a positive productivity slump that you can cure mostly by identifying it as such accounts for all cases of laziness from my point of view.

Do not let yourself believe that you are lazy. Laziness is a self-demeaning diagnosis that works like calling oneself a perfectionist. At least the latter doesn’t add guilt to the equation.

Just like perfectionist, it is OK to let others believe you are lazy. Just don’t believe it yourself. Look for a goal, kill the fear, figure out a good way (good should be good enough). Let your subconscious do much of the work, just give it a nudge from time to time and then decide to get started. Use all the tools you can find that work and will help you.

Repeat the process until all of your goals are achieved.

Other causes for productivity block.

There are other causes for being stuck, but when you analyse them, you will find they are often tied to the subconscious trying to build a perfect plan.

Lack of purpose.

The only exception I can see, because in this case the subconscious has nothing to work on, and no unknown to fear going into.

Yet even this isn’t fully an exception. It is a mirror image of the perfect plan syndrome. Nothing is safer than having no goal. It is by far the surest way to not have to step into the dark. It is the surest way to forget to live.

The first is stalling. Lack of purpose is refusing the very idea of movement.

It is also caused by fear.  Everyone has dreams. Many choose to forget them.

Being worn out.

There’s nothing like pushing too hard, wanting to finish, getting close to a deadline without making progress to wear you out. If the task at hand is important to you, ask yourself if fighting the positive slump described above isn’t the cause of lost energy.

If it isn’t, then we can explore the motivation equation again. Lack of desire? Lack of energy? Too much fear? Whatever the case, there is a binaural track that can help.

Indecision.

There may be two or three paths that lead to the desired result. Sometimes it simply boils down to things that can be done in different orders. Perhaps the problem requires a little more processing time (the positive slump again), but chances are you just need to do one of the tasks and stop worrying about the immediate consequences of chosing one over the other.

Technical problems.

All of your attention is drawn to one particular grain of sand that you think will cripple the entire plan (sometimes rightly so).

Or perhaps, once again, your subconscious mind is drawn to this problem and still busy trying to figure it out. If the problem requires a technical solution you do not know yet, you may need to apply some problem solving (ASIT!), or get help getting past the hurdle (friends, colleagues, outsourcing, consulting specialized forums, books…). I find that getting the tasks you know you need done will give you time to find a way past the perceived obstacle.

Perception of time.

I get this very often. To me, knowing the following helped a lot.

Oftentimes, you have just 20-30 minutes that you can dedicate to your project. It is very easy to let yourself believe it isn’t enough time to get started, build momentum and do something worthwhile.

It isn’t true. Your mind is playing tricks on you that cost you dozens of hours a month of preciously productive time. It can take 45 minutes to get into gear in normal circumstances, so the shorter time frames are viewed as useless, and ultimately lost. Yet each of these little time slots can contain a completed task. Or, simply 1/10th of a completed task.

If you’ve made a list of short tasks with Z Planner, and you are using binaurals for  immediate motivation, then focus, you can easily take advantage of those micro time frames that can add up to hours each day, and dozens of hours per month. They are one of the keys to achieving a personal goal on a limited “time budget”. 

Granted, Z Planner only has 1 hour time frames. If you’ve planned 1 hour a day, you may need to spread it over early in the morning, lunch break, and late at night. You may also need to make little arrangements, like leaving your computer on all day so everything is ready when you get back. Or you can carry your laptop around with you in sleep mode (that’s what those things are for!) Look for solutions, resist the excuses, and you can take advantage of the 20-30 minute breaks to get ahead on your goals.

I do not put off projects to when I have 4 straight hours available. I would rather use those 4 straight hours to relax and sacrifice the 20-30 minute breaks that do not relax me anyways.

Conclusion

Don’t underestimate the extra productivity tools. Immediate motivation and focus (binaurals) have been an invaluable help for me, adding thousands of 20-30 minute time frames for personal work (plus getting up much earlier when big projects are under development).

I am just starting to discover the effects of the creativity track, having focused my usage on motivation, focus and occasional training. Try it when you think you are slumped because still processing unconsciously. Do this in conjunction with Z Planner. You can’t imagine that feeling, and I cannot put it in words!

Occasionally, setting up timers with AM has helped me take full advantage of 2-3 hour time frames, so I could have time to unwind and still be satisfied of my day’s work on a day off.

And the systematic creativity course is just thrilling, especially when asymetrical thinking (for example) helps you solve a real life problem and get a project going again.

Don’t give up on Z Planner too easily. It really does take some time to uncover its full potential. Once you have, the combination of all these tools changes you forever: project after project.

I’ve been toying with a thought a while now, as to what motivation is made of.

I’ve come to a conclusion that seems right, and can’t seem to find the flaw, so I’ll leave it to you to make whatever you want out of it.

Motivation = Energy * (Desire – Fear)

If energy = 0, motivation =0.
If fear >= desire, motivation <=0, meaning it works against you and drifts you away from your goals.

And ideally, if fear = 0, and both desire and energy have high positive values, motivation becomes unstoppable.

A nice tidbit of theory, but what to make of it?

Energy is the outcome of good health, which itself is the outcome of a good diet and exercise, if disease is taken out of this picture (just for the sake of theorizing).

Desire is more subtle. If you’ve found your passion, you’ve found desire. If you’ve fallen in love, you’ve found desire.

But if you do not feel desire, does it mean it is not there?

Fear is complex. Within fear there is fear of negative outcome, or more deeply rooted, unexpressed fears with forgotten motivations. I think most people will agree that fear can exist, even if it is not felt.

If these postulates are accepted, then we come to the conclusion that there can be ardent desire and paralysing fear, both unfelt. Or perhaps, if you only accept that what exists is actually felt, high desire and fear can have worn each other out over time.

So the concrete application of this rant would be: cultivate energy, dominate and dissolve fear and both desire and motivation will emerge by themselves.

Diet, exercise, breathe and meditate on your fears, and you will see light on the path. You will have the motivation to travel that path, and find your heart’s content.

This has further meaning. You may currently be pursuing false desires, enduced by family or societal pressure. What if simply taking the time to relax, listen to the fear and dominate it, cultivate some energy brought forth the revelation that you are, unknowingly, going in the wrong direction?

Couldn’t that lead to an unprecedented turn in your life, and for the better?