BREAKING NEWS: There mostly is no such thing as being stuck. It’s just that YOU can’t see a way out of your situation. Whatever the situation may be.
But there’s almost always a way out.
Sometimes, it is a good idea to stop kicking and screaming at the world, and just let go. Let the chips fall where they may. Because the world is moving, my friend. It’s always moving. So you can’t really stay stuck for long. Things move. For better or for worse. But they do.
A better idea is to get yourself moving. Gary Halbert used to say, “motion over meditation.” But I’m a great fan of meditation too. In fact, I’m sure Gary Halbert must have been a fan too. But he probably knew too well that we can easily spend nine years sitting and staring at a wall like Boddhidharma, if we start engrossing too much in our mental movies.
So, there’s a place for meditation. And there’s a place for motion. The best of both worlds is, you guessed it, “moving meditation.”
And I am a great fan of moving meditation. You basically just shut off your monkey mind and get on with an activity. And that is why “stream-of-consciousness” writing happens to be my favorite form of writing. It’s low-stress, and it’s high impact. Fruits of the big, beautiful, subconscious mind.
But it doesn’t have to be just writing. Physical exercise works wonders. As they say in the marines, “drop down and give me 20 pushups.” Or a walk. Most of the prolific creators of history have had the habit of taking long walks. It stimulates your mind in ways that are hard to explain.
As a wise man once said, “the subconscious mind works the best when the conscious mind has taken the back seat.” Or something like that. Don’t quote me on this. But that’s what the essence of the saying is.
So, being stuck happens at every level of success, activity and life. You can be broke and stuck. You can be rich and stuck. You can be a failure and stuck. You can be successful and stuck. The dynamics stay the same. And the mechanism stays the same too.
Just get moving. And things will start moving in SOME direction. You can then start guiding them in the direction you want them to take. This is what Psycho-Cybernetics is essentially all about. (Look it up!)
Oh, and it also reminds me of a story once told by Brad Bird, the director of movies like Ratatouille and The Incredibles. (And one of the Mission Impossible movies, but let’s not go there.)
So there was once a theater director who barged into a rehearsal and found his actors frozen. They were all looking at each other, and basically looking clueless. He asked what was going on, and they said, “we don’t know what to do!” His instruction? “Well, do something; so that we know what to change!”
Till the next time,
Shakaib Feroz.
P.S. Notice the new setup? Yeah, I just moved to a new service provider recommended by a friend. Let’s see how it goes. Let me know of your feedback please. Oh, and subscribe to the friend’s newsletter below, for the last and greatest news from the AI happenings in the Gulf. It’s called Ai for GCC. Plain and simple! Exactly as it should be.
P.P.S. The renaming and rebranding was long overdue too. And it’s a homage to Gary Halbert, one of the greatest marketers and copywriters who ever lived. (And it’s an ongoing process right now, so expect more changes in the days to come, especially on the visual side.)
