18: Growth
It took a walk, a motivational podcast, and vacuuming the whole house for my brain to click back into blog-action-mode. It’s been bothering me that I haven’t been writing regularly, which has been feeding a cycle of not writing - the paralysis explored in 9, below.
The podcast was speaking about goals and growth- and the common breaking of new year’s resolutions, as many people set goals without working on the skills they need to achieve them.
So far, I have been using this blog as somewhere to practice writing, however, this practice has been lacking. While I greatly enjoy it when I do sit down and write, I haven’t made it a clear and unambiguous task. And so, here is my clarification, and setting personal guidance from which this practice can grow more easily- and with greater enjoyment.
An incomplete manifesto for growth- Bruce Mau
In high school, my art teacher gave us all a printout of Bruce Mau’s “An incomplete manifesto for growth”, and it’s been pinned near my desk on and off in the years since. I’m going to write about something each week, linked to one of Bruce Mau’s points. The manifesto is incomplete- it leaves room also for inspiration to strike, and this rule to be broken. This structure gives me the freedom to write when I feel less motivated while giving plenty of freedom for creativity.
9. Begin Anywhere
“John Cage tells us that not knowing where to begin is a common form of paralysis. His advice: Begin Anywhere”.
-Bruce Mau, “An Incomplete Manifesto for Growth”
I’m jumping back into the blog here, at number 9, with the aim of writing every week and building practice, habit, and skills.
Learning how to write (among other things)
The same art teacher that provided the incomplete manifesto for growth also provided many bits of brilliant advice over the years. Ever encouraging of students exploring beyond the classroom, one of the most enduring nuggets of wisdom was along the lines of “If you’re a musician, but you only ever listen to one song, how can you create good music”.
And so, in application- I’m going to learn how to write, but also, getting deeper into reading again, as widely as possible.
4. Reading right now: Dark Emu, Bruce Pascoe
Last week: Quiet by Susan Cain
Until next week!
AP
Bruce Mau Design can be found here: https://www.brucemaudesign.com/, and the image that I used (the same as what I was given in highschool) can be found here: https://defluence.files.wordpress.com/2012/11/32.jpg