When I was in design school my teacher told me.
“There will always be a point during your current project when you really want to work on your next project.”
I was happy to hear I wasn’t the only one experiencing a state of pessimism.
What she didn’t tell me is that this is one of the most important phases of any project. Whether it’s a university assignment or your online business. This is the phase that separates the heroes from the victims.
Read any folklore or myth and you will find the same thing happening again and again.
Whether it’s Frodo, Harry, Neo or You.
Let me go of a small tangent first. Trust me, it will make sense in one minute.
Last Christmas we were having dinner with the family of my girlfriend. We did a round of answering questions.
The question was “What makes you happy?” and her father said “When first, things don’t work out. And than they do.”
This is an amazing answer because it’s the essence of any good story.
This is why you never see a movie where the prince comes to a tower with a princess. Walks up, opens the door and takes her home. The end.
Nietszche – the funky moustache guy – wrote a book called the birth of tragedy.
He went to theater plays and saw that tragedy is born when chaos wins from order.
When Intoxication wins from Clarity.
Entropy wins from structure.
At the beginning of a project it’s often easy. You are still full of enthusiasm and you have plenty of energy.
This is because you have no Idea which limitations you will find.
You might even feel like there are no limitations and It’s going to be easy.
Anyone can do it, right?
How difficult can it be?
You are in a state of uninformed optimism. The peak of inflated expectations. The peak of mount stupid.
This is where Harry is sitting in the train to Hogwards, Frodo is having a party at the shire, Neo before he is taking the red pill and You on the first day of working on your project.
You will feel boundless, in love, chaotic and think:
- This is going to be easy
- This is going to make me a lot of money
- People will love what I’m going to make
- I can definitely make something awesome
It is impossible to stay in the state of uninformed optimism forever. Unless you hop over to another project, to eventually get to the same point again.
The same problem will repeat itself in you life again and again and again.
Untill you face it.
The fateful hour is at hand, when you either become trapped at this level of life, or you choose to ascent to a higher plane of consciousness and joy.
This is where it gets interesting.
You Keep going.
Slowly your uninformed optimism turns into informed pessimism.
- Shit, this will take longer than expected
- I’m not sure if this is possible
- Why am I doing this?
- I can’t do this
This is natural, good and inevitable. Think about it for a second. You, as the hero of your story have two options. You either:
- Go back to the shire, go back to the muggle world, stay in the matrix, Don’t work on your project.
And the problem will soon rise again. So this is not a real option. If it doesn’t rise again you will – for the rest of your life – wonder what happened if you did take the opportunity.
It’s better to have regrets of the things that you did, than of the things you didn’t do. - OR you take on the adventure.
Why is this pessimism natural and good?
- It makes you reflect on what you did and who you are
- It makes you more critical
- It can open you mind to new options
- It can change you for the better, as negative emotions are a driver for change
This phase is a seed for growth. Embrace your pessimism because you can now finally look at your work clearly.
How do you now go from informed pessimism to informed optimism?
- Accept how you feel. It is part of the process. Don’t fight it. What you resist persists. You’re feelings and thoughts are here for a reason.
- Answer this question and be concise: What do you want?
- And answer this question and be concise: What is the real challenge here?
- Answer: What can you do so that success is the only option?
- After this you can make or read a personal motivation manifesto. You can read mine for free in my newsletter in the description. It always empowers me.
Keep going.
Understand that there will be many more moments in life when you will feel uncertain, and this is a skill you have to master.
At this point your identity might feel stuck in a negative spiral.
Create a small win to show your subconscious that you are successful. This will build momentum.
Write a Motivation Manifesto and read it. Find out mine over here.
Desperation can be a great opportunity.
When I was 21 I worked on a product design project. We had to design a camping toilet. I did a terrible job and my assessors told me I had 2 weeks to improve my grade.
If I didn’t I would have to redo half a year of studying.
This was one of the best periods of my study career. The stress and desperation left no space for noise and I had to focus only on signal.
Later in life I realized why I would never get anything done.
I would never get angry.
Anger is actually an essential ingredient for moving forward. The word aggression comes from the latin ad gradi which means to move forward. The opposite is regression. To move backward.
Desperation – like any emotion – isn’t binary. You can think of it as a scale ranging from 1 to 5.
These are the different stages:
1, You are in dire need of something. This creates so much pain and stress that your mind becomes narrow and uncreative.
There is a scientific study done on Indian farmers. They performed better on cognitive tests after they harvested.
Lacking money and time can lead to poor decision making and attention skills.
2, You are hungry.
You have focus and feel slightly anxious.
You focus on signal, not noise.
You build and become pragmatic.
You are in fight or flight mode.
You are productive and sometimes experience creative desperation.
You see something new in the familiar. a.k.a. Vuja Dé. The oppostive of Deja Vu.
This is not a sustainable state for months.
3, Focused flow. This is the most optimal state.
You want something but you’re not in pain.
You’re building and digesting at the same time.
You’re Creative and productive.
4, Creative.
You don’t need anything.
You feel relaxed.
You focus more on noise than on signal.
You take time to do research or take a walk.
You rest and digest you body as well as your mind.
Very creative and sometimes productive.
5, You need nothing, like the fat people in wall-e or Eckhart Tolle after his enlightenment. Although two very different states. Both of them are not productive.
Understand that Feeling desperate is part of the creative process.
That uncanny feeling means there is a breakthrough about to happen.
As Marcus Aurelius said: Some of the greatest inspiration is born of desperation’
It is part of the process to feel on the peak of mount stupid and glide down to the valley of despair and feel desperate.
Steve Jobs famously said: “Stay hungry, stay foolish”
And if you are hungry, don’t forget to eat your broccoli and subscribe to the newsletter.
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Thank you for reading!