
Two months ago, I stopped procrastinating and decided to embark on a journey I’d wanted to do for a year now. That was the journey of authoring a novel. Naturally, the first step of the journey was thinking about my novel, its story, the characters, the beginning, the middle, and the end. However, it is important to note that while I am thinking about things relating to the novel, I am still not actually writing it. Still, I became satisfied while only performing this activity. You might be thinking this as a positive thing and to a certain extent it really is. In hindsight, the problem is that I have spent an incredibly unreasonable time just thinking about the novel and not writing it. Thankfully I realized this soon enough when I came across a short piece by Strangest Loop, “things that aren’t doing the thing”. This essay provided me with a completely different perspective which I would like to elaborate on and share with you today. First, I would request you to read the excerpt of the piece provided below.
Preparing to do the thing isn't doing the thing.
Scheduling time to do the thing isn't doing the thing.
Making a to-do list for the thing isn't doing the thing.
Telling people you're going to do the thing isn't doing the thing.
Messaging friends who may or may not be doing the thing isn't doing the thing.
Writing a banger tweet about how you're going to do the thing isn't doing the thing.
Hating on yourself for not doing the thing isn't doing the thing. Hating on other people who have done the thing isn't doing the thing. Hating on the obstacles in the way of doing the thing isn't doing the thing.
Fantasizing about all of the adoration you'll receive once you do the thing isn't doing the thing.
Reading about how to do the thing isn't doing the thing. Reading about how other people did the thing isn't doing the thing. Reading this essay isn't doing the thing.
The only thing that is doing the thing is doing the thing.
Many of you might have made a plan for going to the gym, studying or whatever it is that you were struggling to commit to. You might have realized that just by making the plan you began to feel content even though you hadn’t actually done the thing you were planning to.
Similarly, when you discuss your objective with friends, you also begin to feel this false sense of accomplishment. I experienced this firsthand when I began telling my friends in school how I was going to start going to the gym regularly during summer break. And you know what? By just telling my friends this I began to feel a sense of accomplishment even though I had done nothing yet. That is why this “sense of accomplishment” is nothing but a facade.
When we do these sorts of things our brain thinks that we have made progress. However, have we really made progress just by making a plan to go to the gym but we have never once gone to the gym? Can we call that progress? Well to an extent the answer is yes. It is certainly a step in the right direction but that is all that is, a step. A single step will help you have a direction for your journey but you actually have to start walking towards it.
In my case, while I haven’t actually written a single word of the novel. Having just made a sort of mind-map, I started to become content which is detrimental to my overall journey. Therefore, we should not relish in making these plans. Instead, we should see them as a guiding light and while we set up this light we should know that this is nothing but the light which will illuminate the journey which we yet have to embark on. Simply, the only thing that is doing the thing is doing the thing.
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