Planned to Death vs Planned to LIFE
Bridging the gap between analysis paralysis and being publish-happy
The idea lingers in, a passing thought in the darkness of my consciousness. I reach out and grab it. Before I know it, I've risen from my bed and am padding down to my office to try it out.
Oh sweet surrender, the idea is delicious. I sink into it. I let it take me. We flow together for hours during which I should really be asleep.
Eventually, I’m too sleepy to be skillful or clever anymore. I retire to bed.
Red-eyed, I wake the next day, and after shedding my mind of whatever dream state I managed in the few hours I had left before my alarm, I remember. My idea. My thing that I made. We’re in the waking hours now, and I get to finish it up and share it with the world.
I walk swiftly down to my office, avoiding my kid’s bedroom and my smallest dog that wants to be taken for a walk along the way.
Mmm, yes. It’s still good. Great, even.
I give it finishing touches, I need to finish before the fire starts to shrink.
Finally, it’s done enough.
I handle the final logistics of getting it to an upload-able state. All three dogs are barking, and my kid needs to eat breakfast. I can hear the demands of all just a floor above.
Finally, I hit PUBLISH.
I put my phone face down. I leave it in the basement. I go upstairs to do mom things, while an ember in my heart continues to glow in anticipation of the world getting to see what I’ve created.
This is how 99% of my creative output goes.
But I have wild dreams about being the type of person who iterates. Who works on a thing for months and months.
The thing is, I’m publish-happy.
I have creatively grown up on the internet, where the audience is a click away. I’m even trying to finish writing this so that I can post it.
Now, there is a tremendous value in publishing fast. Not everything needs to be planned to death.
Perhaps things need to be planned to life.
Ooooh, that’s a good phrase. Now I need to figure out what it means.
Dear reader, please share with me what “planned to life” might mean/contain/entail.
LOVE this. I am definitely less publish happy but wholly relate to both planning to death and planning to life. I’ve been working lately on a breakthru in surrendering “control of my experience” which feels very similar to how “planning to life” sits for me ~ taking the actions, having ideas and goals AND then letting go of needing to control or plan out how it goes once I’ve set things in motion. Enjoying the ride whatever comes. And also spending the energy otherwise spent on “controlling” on my well-being instead, in such a way as sources me to be as OPEN for the experiences as possible :)
Hi, it's me, the guy who has a bajillion ideas that never see the light of day because I can't focus on one of them long enough. It's not that I'm waiting for perfection to hit publish, I struggle to get to the point of calling something "done."