The Longer You Wait The Larger The Problem — Until I Became Acquainted With Silence
I can’t believe it.
All I had to do was sit in silence and tell myself to solve the problem.
Until I do, I’m not leaving.
And to my surprise, the looming elephant in the room was actually a stuffed animal.
Often, the narrative in our minds inflates our problems exorbitantly.
I found the pin to that terrifying balloon in silence.
A period that started as a purposeful hiatus somehow snowballed into an avalanche of doubt.
I stopped writing to focus on my exams — and rightly so.
However, it’s impossible for something to remain polished forever without maintenance.
And I abandoned my craft.
It’s no surprise that I was welcomed home by matted layers of dust and decrepitation.
The majority of it was mental.
Over those months, I thought to myself,
Why don’t I get ideas anymore?
Why don’t I get the excitement/urge to write?
Why don’t I want to write?
What has changed?
Was it a momentary passion?
Is this even what I want?
Can I still do this?
Do I even have anything I want to write?
Does anyone even want to read?
Do I even have the right to return it after abandoning it?
Every thought you can imagine, I’ve had it.
Repeatedly.
For months.
Each question driving a wedge between myself and my beloved art.
From an intimate blissful escape to an estranged acquaintance.
Isn’t it funny that it was a quiet space that silenced those voices?
I am not a prolific doubter or overthinker, however my superpower: Procrastination, tends to achieve identical results.
If your thoughts are preventing you from doing anything, you need to understand this:
There is no merit in dancing around a problem.
If you want to solve something — grab it by the horns.
For me, my antidote was isolation.
No distractions.
No noise.
Just me, my paintbrush (my keyboard) and my art (a blank page & blinking cursor).
Most will tell you, the longer you run from something — the harder it will be to overcome it.
I say that’s a load of nonsense.
And there’s a massive reason why.
Most problems don’t have an interest rate or multiplier effect attached.
They stay the same size.
They appear harder because of the Goliath Effect.
Goliath Effect
In the bible, there is a story about a young shepherd boy and a giant warrior shrouded in bronze armour with a spear.
To settle the war, the Philistines challenged the Israelites to one conclusive battle.
If one man defeated Goliath, the war would be settled.
Goliath, the giant warrior, challenged the Israelite army for 40 days every morning and evening.
Twice every day, he returned to jeer and taunted them into bringing a challenger — yet, not one man in the army dared.
They were terrified.
But on what basis?
Within the 40 days, no one had fought him.
Their fear was real, but wholly assumed.
The Goliath effect is simple.
The longer a problem which appears difficult goes unsolved, the harder our mind will twist it’s appearance to prevent us from engaging with it.
It’s a simple mechanism to prevent failure.
But it isn’t representative of reality.
And when it comes to growth, the mind isn’t your best friend.
The story of David and Goliath is centred on perspective.
The Israelites fear and ultimate defeat, in absence of David, started with their assumption of reality as they perceived it.
Goliath as undefeatable.
That assumption became real and crippling the moment they failed to attempt to disprove it.
On the other hand, David centred his perspective outside of reality.
He believed that God would strengthen him to conquer anything before him.
Albeit another assumption, the critical difference is his emboldened him to try.
It’s not as if David was blind to the reality before him — he shouldn’t have been able to win.
That is what the common sense interpretation of reality declared.
Whether you attribute his victory to divine intervention is neither here nor there, his victory proves that assumptions — no matter how real or well-founded they appear — are assumptions until proven.
In short, it doesn’t matter what your mind thinks.
Just do.
It’s better to deal with every situation head on.
Goliath effect or not.
Since the size of a situation, in most cases, remains constant — no matter what your mind says.
And that was my experience.
I convinced myself I never would’ve been able to feel this feeling of enjoyment whilst writing, and in turn never write to the level I previously operated at — never mind higher!
Yet, in one 30 minute session I reversed that assumption.
That’s why isolation is the antidote for an overrun mind.
In an enclosed space, you’re forced to recognise that your problems aren’t actually as big as you assumed.
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?
