Friday 14 May 2010

Making Magic Wands From Hurdles

I was thinking about my problem of overcoming an initial hurdle in order to do something that I know I benefit from - especially when I'm in a bad mood - and it occurred to me that this is a good source of magic wands.

Think of a problem, something you can't keep up: writing each day, exercising each day, keeping the house clean, whatever. All of these a problems. And in my case, I can blame each and every one of these problems not on the actual activity, but on getting started with the activity. I have no major problem with writing (I love it) but I start off blocked and unwilling. No problem with exercise (it makes me feel great when I'm doing it) but I prefer to stay sat on my couch. No problem with cleaning either (it can be rather satisfying as it often shows very visible progress), but 101 things (including reruns of Friends on TV) seem preferable to starting.

In each case, if I remove the initial obstacle, the initial hurdle, the problem will go away. The solution is to solve something small (the hurdle) not something big (the entire problem). In short, removing a hurdle is like a magic wand... moreover knowing that, and knowing that when you're faced with a challenge, you can look for a hurdle, then try to solve that, rather than running head on at the entirety of the problem - that is a magic wand too.

I'm going to write a series of posts on ways to overcome hurdles - some of which are more useful than others... and some of which are almost certain to cause as many problems as they solve. I hope you find your magic wands amongst them

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