Back to Basics: The Moment I Reached A State Of Nothing, I Finally Felt The Fullness Of Everything
Last weekend, I decided to try something different.
I wanted to go back to basics.
See, I could’ve used the washing machine.
But something told me to use my hands,
And I did.
I washed my clothes with my hands for 40 minutes.
I flipped, churned, and scrubbed my clothes repeatedly.
I tried rhythm after rhythm, almost attempting to mimic the machine itself with my movements.
And it was hard.
I was sweating in the first 10 minutes; I had a tricep pump by the halfway mark.
And everything ached.
My back ached.
My wrists ached.
My forearms and triceps ached.
It hurt.
But, I felt alive.
There was something about going back to basics.
Whenever I make mashed potatoes,
I always peel them manually.
No matter what happens, who’s in the kitchen, or where I’m cooking,
I never use a peeler.
One might argue that it’s inefficient and a waste of time.
I agree with the former; most people don’t have the proficiency or skill to make manual peeling worth their while.
There’s often significantly more waste, and it’s more time-consuming.
However, I disagree with the latter.
My mother is the best example; she can peel three potatoes with a knife before I can peel one with a peeler.
Why?
Because she mastered the basics.
She went over them again and again and again throughout her life.
And the fruit of her effort is evident to this day.
Even if me and my sister have done all the cooking for the past 5 years, she’s still the best.
Because she went back to the basics over a million times.
She is the reason I’ll never use a peeler, given the choice.
Because I’ve seen the power of mastery for myself, and a shortcut just doesn’t cut it like the real thing does.
I want to master the basics too.
The best example, however, was skipping this afternoon.
Riding on the coattails of growth, I’ve graduated from simply getting over the rope to a wide arsenal of skills.
From sprints,
To criss-crossing,
To the figure of eight,
To the double skip,
One-legged,
Boxers skip,
Running whilst skipping,
Gradually changing tempo from a slow march to sprints,
Then mixed variations of the above,
But whilst trying to juggle all of that, I realised that I wasn’t as good as I thought.
I started failing.
A lot.
Surprisingly, it was the “easy” stuff.
It took me ten minutes to relearn the boxers skip.
I just couldn’t get the tempo consistent.
Before, I could zone out whilst performing it — at will.
Then, I started fumbling the criss-cross.
And the sprints.
And the slow march.
I started falling from the tower of mastery I thought I’d built.
Maybe it was fatigue,
Maybe I was cold,
Maybe I was at my limit.
Whichever way I justify it, one fact remains.
I needed to go back to basics.
To build that tower steadily,
To appreciate every single component.
There’s something about going back to basics.
It teaches you appreciation.
Whether it’s through failure or through effort,
You learn to appreciate everything.
With my skipping, I appreciated how far I needed to go.
With washing my own clothes, I appreciated how fortunate I was to be able to do this on a whim, not as a necessity.
With peeling potatoes, I gained an appreciation for the time it takes to become incredible.
And how much time must be invested to achieve that.
By going back to basics, I learnt appreciation.
I learnt humility.
I learnt the fruit of effort.
I learnt things my privileges could never teach me.
I need to go back to basics.
And you do too.
Who knows how it will shape you?
I know for sure that going back to basics is the reason I’ll master whatever I touch.
And, you can too.
LM
Thank you for reading!
American psychologist Alok Konojia, or ‘HealthyGamerGG’, says:
“The absence of reflection is the reason you’re stuck.”
To solidify our growth, let’s reflect:
Petrichor’s 1-Minute Reflection:
- How did you feel before reading?
- How did you feel whilst reading?
- Do you feel any different now that you’ve finished?
- What is your one takeaway from reading this?
