3 paradoxes of life
Deadlines and Lifelines
There's this cliche tale that we should all know - someone learns of having or contracting a terminal illness, say cancer or otherwise, and the confirmation test is also positive. Within that time said person's outlook totally changes and he or she starts living life to the fullest.
False alarms aside, theres this thing about being flexible - without deadlines life becomes pretty meaningless, at least personally imho. Im one of those "oh i don't like setting deadlines its so rigid blablablabla" and stuff and then when a large cloud of non-planned time comes around there seems to be nothing accomplished and nothing going on. Conversely there are those who constantly do stuff and it becomes some combination of routine and mass of random stuff (that eventually turns into a routine) and having that schedule drains their life time away. Ideally there should be a happy medium which i believe comes with setting a lifestyle that is inherently NOT comfortable with your current preferences. Having a deadline makes me turn on creative engines and, counterintuitively enough, feel more accomplished, which translates into more momentum and more motivation to practice. Granted this post was meant to be written around last week but after some delays and changes has finally been put down on paper (so to speak) and i hope will help to trigger more writing in the near future (well if its bad please inform me so i'll write less)
The balance that results from deadlines (well this is my biased side speaking, since i'm the lazy kind who needs a way to start doing stuff) apart from causing more people to tend to the average (another phenomenon of life) way of living life and having a moderate level of activity, also creates a steady motivation. Doing stuff such as learning new repertoire for violin/viola seems a bit meaningless (to me) if its just for the sake of knowing how to play more. Here's a point I would like to make that would be somewhat controversial - some people say they like to play/sing for their personal pleasure. Personally I can't simply do things just for fun, which I've mentioned (and found problematic too) earlier - at the very least there must be some use for learning something new. It is more like an outlet or stream instead of a stagnant pool that i would like to create in the flow of the activity, so at the very least that something is to make me gain some knowledge or skill, eventually to be put to use in a real situation (yes this is highly uncharacteristic of INFPs so i don't know why it is so odd - for enquiries look at the title of this post). So the deadline in this case would be the goal (i can feel my infp-ness crumbling) such as preparing a piece that a pianist friend wants to accompany (this really works, it got me to scratch brand new pieces from.... well.. scratch). And instead of wasting time doing random other stuff I do end up practising and knowing more pieces. Sometimes doing something for the sake of someone is enough motivation, yet the deadlines may or may not be respected, to varying resulting degrees of offending the said someone.
I don't know how the irony starts to factor in here but what i do know is that those who swear by no deadlines actually engineer their own very unique deadlines that don't require a time factor (i for one feel that time seems more like a cloud than a bolt of light) and that actually makes for accomplished, but still fuzzy headed people. Hurray for tipping procrastination on its head and using its supposed faults for powerful triggers.
I'll now use a fictional viewpoint that illustrates and over-filled life that is chock full of deadlines and the lifelines are as tangled as the previous persona's deadlines were (once) absent. Everything runs like TV programming, where theres always a NEXT UP - blah and instead of a stream of consciousness you have a stream of semi-conscious routine or series of events that would take place anyway and the future is already obvious in the now. Accomplishments are ever-increasing and stacking up but somehow (well i'm assuming, maybe these personas feel perfectly fine) something is missing. You know how a black hole is detected - the gravitational lens and the absence of light tells its presence. Yes the missing something is actually the nothing, the void, the blank in the timetable that looks like a sore thumb on paper, which cries out to be filled (well not if you're a student). It begs the question "so what are u doing for then to then?" as though its a sin not to be doing anything.
This void we speak of is as meaningful as the potential activity it promised. Just as finding a right motivation to do something is a powerful concept, finding a reason not to do something is equally powerful in that we don't just seek (or lament) more or less things to do but instead deal with why we are actually doing what we are doing. Without delving into the meaning of life, its imperative to think how we lead out lives and how we would want to be alive (and dead eventually - rather how we would affect the world after our lives). These little things tend to add up and tip over the balance (especially if we don't balance our styles duh) and cause serious meltdowns - up to deaths caused by accident or intent (its odd how death is the 1st ultimate thing to come to mind when many things are worse). Just as the heat of passion burns itself out like a supermassive star, the bleak relationship is hopeless and dies with nary a whisper.
Yet when all is said and done this paradox is probably a "duh" one. Go figure.
Skill and Experience
under construction
Ideals and Practicalities (or Surfaces and Depths)
also under construction...
There's this cliche tale that we should all know - someone learns of having or contracting a terminal illness, say cancer or otherwise, and the confirmation test is also positive. Within that time said person's outlook totally changes and he or she starts living life to the fullest.
False alarms aside, theres this thing about being flexible - without deadlines life becomes pretty meaningless, at least personally imho. Im one of those "oh i don't like setting deadlines its so rigid blablablabla" and stuff and then when a large cloud of non-planned time comes around there seems to be nothing accomplished and nothing going on. Conversely there are those who constantly do stuff and it becomes some combination of routine and mass of random stuff (that eventually turns into a routine) and having that schedule drains their life time away. Ideally there should be a happy medium which i believe comes with setting a lifestyle that is inherently NOT comfortable with your current preferences. Having a deadline makes me turn on creative engines and, counterintuitively enough, feel more accomplished, which translates into more momentum and more motivation to practice. Granted this post was meant to be written around last week but after some delays and changes has finally been put down on paper (so to speak) and i hope will help to trigger more writing in the near future (well if its bad please inform me so i'll write less)
The balance that results from deadlines (well this is my biased side speaking, since i'm the lazy kind who needs a way to start doing stuff) apart from causing more people to tend to the average (another phenomenon of life) way of living life and having a moderate level of activity, also creates a steady motivation. Doing stuff such as learning new repertoire for violin/viola seems a bit meaningless (to me) if its just for the sake of knowing how to play more. Here's a point I would like to make that would be somewhat controversial - some people say they like to play/sing for their personal pleasure. Personally I can't simply do things just for fun, which I've mentioned (and found problematic too) earlier - at the very least there must be some use for learning something new. It is more like an outlet or stream instead of a stagnant pool that i would like to create in the flow of the activity, so at the very least that something is to make me gain some knowledge or skill, eventually to be put to use in a real situation (yes this is highly uncharacteristic of INFPs so i don't know why it is so odd - for enquiries look at the title of this post). So the deadline in this case would be the goal (i can feel my infp-ness crumbling) such as preparing a piece that a pianist friend wants to accompany (this really works, it got me to scratch brand new pieces from.... well.. scratch). And instead of wasting time doing random other stuff I do end up practising and knowing more pieces. Sometimes doing something for the sake of someone is enough motivation, yet the deadlines may or may not be respected, to varying resulting degrees of offending the said someone.
I don't know how the irony starts to factor in here but what i do know is that those who swear by no deadlines actually engineer their own very unique deadlines that don't require a time factor (i for one feel that time seems more like a cloud than a bolt of light) and that actually makes for accomplished, but still fuzzy headed people. Hurray for tipping procrastination on its head and using its supposed faults for powerful triggers.
I'll now use a fictional viewpoint that illustrates and over-filled life that is chock full of deadlines and the lifelines are as tangled as the previous persona's deadlines were (once) absent. Everything runs like TV programming, where theres always a NEXT UP - blah and instead of a stream of consciousness you have a stream of semi-conscious routine or series of events that would take place anyway and the future is already obvious in the now. Accomplishments are ever-increasing and stacking up but somehow (well i'm assuming, maybe these personas feel perfectly fine) something is missing. You know how a black hole is detected - the gravitational lens and the absence of light tells its presence. Yes the missing something is actually the nothing, the void, the blank in the timetable that looks like a sore thumb on paper, which cries out to be filled (well not if you're a student). It begs the question "so what are u doing for then to then?" as though its a sin not to be doing anything.
This void we speak of is as meaningful as the potential activity it promised. Just as finding a right motivation to do something is a powerful concept, finding a reason not to do something is equally powerful in that we don't just seek (or lament) more or less things to do but instead deal with why we are actually doing what we are doing. Without delving into the meaning of life, its imperative to think how we lead out lives and how we would want to be alive (and dead eventually - rather how we would affect the world after our lives). These little things tend to add up and tip over the balance (especially if we don't balance our styles duh) and cause serious meltdowns - up to deaths caused by accident or intent (its odd how death is the 1st ultimate thing to come to mind when many things are worse). Just as the heat of passion burns itself out like a supermassive star, the bleak relationship is hopeless and dies with nary a whisper.
Yet when all is said and done this paradox is probably a "duh" one. Go figure.
Skill and Experience
under construction
Ideals and Practicalities (or Surfaces and Depths)
also under construction...