When I finish a notebook, my process is to go back and read through the whole notebook and transfer any notes, comments, reflections, ideas (and so on) that feel worth revisiting. That way I can throw out the notebook and retain any gems.
As I’ve been reading my writing and entries from all the way back in 2020 to the present, I was struck by something I would never have thought I would do…
Perseverate.
I’ve been rereading entry after entry (some in close proximity, some spread out across time) where I ponder what I want to be doing (with my work or my life), writing down the specific things I know I want (which are theoretically different than what I was doing at the time), and trying to figure out the path between the two.
Except that for many entries and notes, I don’t seem to be doing anything to navigate that path.
My virtue of planning was in high overdrive. I was so focused on needing to map out my here-to-there before taking a single step that I took no steps at all.
That’s when our virtues show their dark side.
Planning is an important quality for anyone wanting to get things done. It gives you a road map, a way to move ahead, a way to achieve your goals.
But if you lean too far into it, and planning becomes stagnation, it’s gone too far.
I’ve come to believe that the key to making the best of any virtue is to find its energetic opposite and when you start to feel yourself leaning too far into a virtue, you switch to its opposite. So if action is the opposite of planning, once planning mode becomes stagnant, I know it’s time to switch to action.
What’s the opposite energy you need to cultivate in order to keep your virtues in their most powerful mode?
