Get Everything Done

Bringing the focus into the question of long term goals and the Dreams method. This was inspired by Mark H's comments about lingering tasks on a long list. I was also intrigued by Mark's comments about how Dreams deals with this in detail, since it probably does, but it's not clear exactly how.

Let's say instead that you were using the Dreams method. Let's also say that you have a suitably inspiring future vision (let's even say it's so good when you read it that you get chills just reading it, that's how desirable it is to you). But now let's say that you've hit a road block equivalent to the "lingering long term project" issue. Your present reality isn't progressing. In particular, there's one or more areas of your life that you absolutely see are crucial to your future. They're very tied. Maybe it's fixing up a poor marriage or maybe it's getting real work and progress done on whatever that long term project is (like writing a book). But every day you look at that vision, get inspired, and do nothing. You can feel a strong pull towards the completion of that project, but maybe you don't feel much pull to do anything, and you end up drifting or feeling somewhat depressed or conflicted about even wanting to do that task, despite how much you know it means to you.

In such a case, the problem isn't so much one of motivation as resistance and maybe whatever it is that would get you to actually *do* something at the right time of the day. Mark has pointed out that resistance can be a bigger issue than motivation.

Now, clearly there was *something* that was done in the Dreams method to help deal with this, but it isn't exactly clear what. For example, using the What's Better list to help you monitor and recognize progress seems obvious, and clearly this is something you should talk about with your future self. But...it's less clear what you might actually *ask* your present self. How exactly would you go about helping? And what sorts of things might you put on your What's Better list?

In short, given that the Dreams method is supposed to help pull you forward into this work that is lingering and not moving, how would you actually use it to do that with things that are more stuck than your average stuck thing?

One facetious thing I could imagine would be the future self saying, "You just need to push yourself harder and set a schedule and use time-blocking/AutoFocus/FVP!" Sure, at this point you have "coached" yourself into adding a new low-level system to manage your time and try to make incremental progress by pushing yourself to take little and often steps through more systematization. While that seems maybe technically within the scope of the system, it seems like it sort of undermines the whole spirit of being in Pull mode, which seems like the whole point of the three core pillars of the Dreams method.

On the other hand, just saying, "revise your vision, use a what's better list, and coach yourself" is too isolated and removed from the specific problem to be helpful. In this scenario, you're already doing those things, so the question is, if you are doing those things, how do you use those things to actually address this when you identify that things are *not* progressing in a necessary area, where not making progress in this area is a severe threat to your future vision? How does one combat such high levels of resistance or reluctance with the Dreams method without undermining the principles of PULL and "not seeing things as problems"?

I think part of what isn't clear about Mark's comments that Dreams deals in details with the questions of vision and fear and resistance is how one uses the method to address these things? The clarification of vision is straightforward enough, but it's less clear how one goes about using the method if PULL mode seems more elusive due to higher levels of resistance on big things or long standing difficult habits or fears that prevent forward progress?

Okay, hunting the archives, I found this relevant post:

---BEGIN QUOTE---
avrum:

<< What would have happened if you were feeling the ol' resentment and/or procrastination around order? >>

I would first make sure that the goal for "order" was compelling (see previous post). And I would be sure to put ANY improvement relating to order on the What's Better list (as I did in the book). Then I would report honestly on a daily basis the present situation, including my feelings about it. That would include "the ol' resentment and/or procrastination" if applicable. I would also keep the goal itself under revision.

You will find several occasions in the book when I say something on the lines of "I'll do it when I feel like doing it and not before". That would definitely apply here. The whole point of the methods in "Dreams" is that you don't push yourself to do things. You let them happen.
---END QUOTE---

I think that helps to clarify things a little. One thing I guess I'm wondering is whether you, Mark, would add anything to the above having had years of further experience behind you?

I'll also throw in this slightly contrarian viewpoint:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3QWIxElEnc8

The above interpretation of motivation is sufficient to explain why the Dreams method may work, but it also provides a counterpoint as to why a task-driven system like AutoFocus and its children may also work just as well. Furthermore, it provides a somewhat radical notion (sometimes hinted at with mark's systems), that maybe to achieve things of meaning and value, you don't need the traditional frameworks of goals, sub-goals, and tasks, and that you might actually be better off simply dismissing long term goals entirely, which is kind of counter to the Dreams method, but also oddly congruent with it at the same time.

Fortunately, there's a book, briefly discussed on this site before in 2015 called Daily Rituals by Mason Currey, which succinctly and methodically details the daily lives of well over 100 creatives.

There's a remarkable commonality in the structures and principles of their days, even if the exact routines don't seem that similar. Of course, this is a little bit selective, as not everyone generates value by being Creatively Productive in the same way that artists, writers, and such do.