How Emptiness can make You Successful
A guide to achieving clarity
With the not-so-recent announcement of worldwide quarantine, I always thought long periods of self-isolation would help me achieve my goals and learn the skills that I want freely: as opposed to sitting and grinding through class every day.
How wrong could I be?
My ideal personal time of self-improvement did not propel me to some ideal version of myself. I had no sense of direction. I just feel as if I’m making some progress, without really reaching some tangible point that I feel happy with.
I have learned some JavaScript, played and watched chess coaching videos, and promised myself to learn how to make AI algorithms. Each day passes and I really feel like these “baby-steps” wouldn’t help me reach my long-term goals. Don’t get me wrong here, doing something is better than doing nothing at all. But, once I start learning how to start things, I feel it’s much better to take a breather and create a plan of action to get to the destination faster.
I’ve been watching the first few videos of Jordan Peterson’s course on Personality (it’s free and it’s really good) and I’ve learned a great deal about uncertainty. Long story short, one of the segments described this uncertainty as being an ocean: we would never know what lurks inside. I felt like I’ve found a breakthrough after I realized that the switching between commitments that I had was one of the ways that I tried coping with the bottomless ocean.
Having a taste of each goal that I create made me feel secure. I’d switch to another activity after hitting a road bump. When nothing is on the line, it can really feel demotivating to focus on an activity: which hinders me from reaching my ideal self.
My Takeaway
Clarity, clarity, clarity
Really stop and think about the things you enjoy. Think of possible goals/dreams that you really feel that are worth pursuing. Identify points in your learning process that unconsciously makes you turn away from what you’re doing. Imagine goals and stick to a schedule. Think of anything that creates clarity towards where you really want to be.
These may sound obvious, but personally, I was never an advocate of being disciplined. What I end up doing most of the time is just based on my gut feeling: and I feel that it never fits into all situations. Writing all of this down really helped me know what to do with all the “baby-steps-information” I’m taking in from learning my hobbies. And I hope it helps you too.
