Habits/Planning/Self-Discipline vs. Spontaneity/Intuition

[-Luke-]

At the end of the most recent Generative Energy Podcast @haidut asked Peat if there's any value to self-discipline and building habits or if a person should live his/her life spontaneously or intuitively. Peat argued for the latter. He basically said that you should only do things that you don't feel like doing if your survival depends on it. It was a very short segment at the end of the episode.

I've bounced back and forth between the two approaches in recent years and have never been completely satisfied. If I'm trying to build habits that should be good for me in theory but I don't really "like" I give up pretty fast and feel more stressed. If I'm trying to live my life spontaneously I feel like I'm lacking any kind of direction and that I'm treading water. It's hard for me to find a balance. The same with my planning for my work. When I make a precise plan of what I want to do, it goes well for a while, but after a while I feel resistance. If I try intuition, that also feels good for a while, but sometimes days/weeks go by when I don't make any progress. I'm not sure what the solution here is. Planning and Habits and forcing myself through the resistance or spontaneity/intuition and accepting periods of low motivation and no progress. Or some balance between the two approaches.

What do you think about stuff like that? What works for you? Does it have to be one or the other or is there a happy medium?

 

[pushkin]

that's a very interesting subject. I have to think about it a little more about it, but my first thoughts are that when you accept that you are going to live life and work in a more intuitive way, you give over your control to a higher power, so the schedule that we love to work with in the modern world is often thwarted - intuition doesn't work to a clockwork universe or man-made schedules. We have to accept that there may be huge tracts of time where 'nothing' happens, but in reality a lot is happening in the unseen world, which is after all, where intuition lies. An example of this is when a scientist cannot solve a problem, so they sleep on it, or do something else (Ray would paint perhaps) and the answer comes bubbling up from the realm of intuitive knowing. Nothing we can forcefully do will cause that answer to appear, and often forcing it to appear will succeed in chasing it further away.

I trained as an artist myself, and would spend huge amounts of time 'doing nothing' learning that this is where the most fruitful ideas come from. I had a heck of a difficult time fitting into the schedules of modern life however! It is also very difficult to only do things you feel like doing, unless you are prepared to give your life over to the unknown, which includes not knowing where the next penny will come from - most people nowadays are not prepared to do this. On the flip side of this, I believe that the people who give themselves over to intuition are capable of making the most profound leaps, society needs them as the most innovative thinkers - albeit in a non-linear way.

It is also how you want to define 'progress' and how pressured you feel to produce something that this modern world deems worthy - usually tied to money.

I am lucky now, my husband works to pay the bills and I write fiction, so I am earning money in a very non-linear way, yet within that, I keep to a tight schedule of writing x number of words a day - but it is something I am completely in love with so I have no problem keeping to a schedule - perhaps that is the key - if it is something you are passionate about, you would do it all day, every day without even a passing thought for a schedule or deadline. Maybe that is what Ray is getting at - 'Follow your Bliss' as Joseph Campbell said - and then everything will fall into place?

 

[-Luke-]

It is also how you want to define 'progress' and how pressured you feel to produce something that this modern world deems worthy - usually tied to money.

That's a good point. I think many people confuse "doing something" and "being busy" with making progress. And maybe sometimes I fall into this trap myself, even though I am aware of it.

In some areas of my life I practice intuition with good results, exercising for example. I don't force myself to work out, I don't have a set weekly schedule (like Monday/Wednesday/Friday), and I don't have a set structure. If I exercise, I usually do that before lunch, and most of the time I don't decide before 11 AM if I'm going to do something or not, it depends on stress levels, sleep, motivation, physical sensation,... If I exercise I have very few basic rules (balancing push and pull exercises for example) and just do some exercises that come to mind.

However, I'm not sure this approach would work if I was a pro athlete. And this is where the money comes into play. If money wasn't an issue, I'd probably handle work the same way. But it is an issue and therefore I wonder if self-discipline/goal setting is absolutely necessary or if there's another way.

What you describe in your first paragraph is something I have experienced relatively frequently. The solution to a problem often comes when you're not actively working on that problem. I remember when I was working on my master thesis and didn't make any (evident) progress on a problem for days. And then the solution came "out of nowhere" while I was in the shower, thinking of something completely different (no, not what you guys are thinking). So yes, there can be progress without being visible for a while.

 

[Perry Staltic]

He basically said that you should only do things that you don't feel like doing if your survival depends on it.

Has the guy ever been married and had kids?

 

[eat my peat]

What works for you? Does it have to be one or the other or is there a happy medium?

do what you want.

take risks.

be radically open minded to adapt to situations you find yourself in.

 

[Perry Staltic]

What do you think about stuff like that? What works for you? Does it have to be one or the other or is there a happy medium?

Don't listen to anyone that tries to tell you how to live your life. It's your life and only you will know what works and what doesn't work. It's all about finding the right balance that works for you..