Human Doing - The importance of taking action

There is a quote from Teddy Roosevelt, the full import of which I did not understand until I had no option to embody the subject matter of the quote itself:

It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.

To me this quote is not just a collection of words assembled in such a manner so as to inspire, it is rather a way to live, rather a way to remind myself that the only thing that matters, that ever did and ever will is to take action. Roosevelt sharply (and to me, rightly) draws the line between those who sit around wallowing in their misery or complaining about "the way things are" and those who actually try to do something about it. When we cross the line, from the land of inaction to action, do we realize that this is the only space where any form of creation can take place, and if there is a place where there is any hope of a better future, it is this.

There have been many phases of my life that were tough (it's another story that these phases made me stronger the way I am), during these phases I remember being paralysed by fear, anxiety and if nothing else, hopelessness. Now I have realized that any action that we take in order to improve our situation, no matter how small, adds up. How I came to this realization was really an opportune mix of reading the right books, watching the right videos, listening to the right podcasts and then finally saying "well, let me give it a shot, don't have many options anyway". And unsurprisingly, it was when I took action that things changed. Sure I still failed anyway, but I did not fail as bad. And it is this proof of concept that I really needed, to see for myself that change is possible even in situations I considered hopeless.

Don't consider me naive, I know the world can suck, there are many things which are wrong, there are many things which are unfair. Bright kids born into poverty, undeserving people inheriting wealth and then wasting it, accidents snuffing out great potential, discrimination, nepotism, I get it, I know. And maybe you, yourself have had it tough, maybe you have had it real tough, maybe you have faced deep pain in your past - All I am asking is: Do you need to carry that pain in the future too?

In order to keep me focused on taking action I often keep 3 things in mind:

The Grey Hour

This is especially relevant if we are taking massive action i.e. going far out of our comfort zone and doing work that is we find really challenging like trying to become a first time entrepreneur, trying to become a known singer/actor, trying to secure VC funding for a new business, trying to get a research grant and so on. When we take massive action there is sure to be massive resistance, the faster we try to go the more friction we encounter. Maybe your first product prototype fails, maybe the sector your are trying to grow business in is loaded with regulatory hurdles and red tape, maybe the director of the film you are auditioning for gives the role to their daughter or maybe the VC feels your product does not have mass market appeal.

When faced with resistance it is often easy to feel deflated and depressed, its during these times that we want to kick the curb, cry foul and give up. These negative thoughts make it harder to take action you need to take, which can further worsen the situation and lead to a negative spiral of resistance leading to negative thoughts that lead to sub-optimal action taking that leads to sub-optimal performance that increases resistance and leads to more negative thoughts and so on. And being stoic about it, ignoring the resistance while continuing to take action is easier said than done - bottled up emotions need a release.

The way I like to respond whenever I encounter resistance is through something I like to call the "Grey Hour", which is essentially one hour every week that I dedicate to negative emotional release every Saturday from 5 to 6 in the evening. Whenever I encounter hardship I tell myself: "I'll think about this in the Grey Hour". I create a conscious thought in my mind and assure my subconscious that indeed I will allow it to vent all of that emotion by whatever way it likes (from cursing at the open sky to literally crying as long as it's not harmful to myself or others) at the designated hour at the end of the week. Having removed that mental weight I then focus energy into solving the problem at hand or making the most of the situation. This is good because when faced with a problem you really want to be able to dedicate full energy into solving it and not have negative thoughts about how "the world is unfair" sap your energy.

But here is the really cool thing about the Grey Hour: I rarely use it. When the Grey Hour rolls around, enough time has passed between the event and now that the negative emotions associated with the event have died down/become significantly weaker and my mind just accepts the event as just another fact that can be now much more rationally analyzed. The Grey Hour is a total win-win, you don't waste time in negativity when faced with resistance by allocating a dedicated hour for letting out negative thoughts and then rarely need to use the Grey Hour anyway. Try it out sometime.

Squaring the Creation Curve - "What did I create today?"

There is a concept called mortality curve (a.k.a. survivorship curve) which is a graph showing the number or proportion of individuals surviving to each age for a given species or group. Humans are part of Type I or convex curves which are characterized by high survival probability in early and middle life, followed by rapid decline in health/survival in later life, typical of species that produce few offspring but care for them well. "Squaring the mortality curve" means to have such a life where one is healthy and active well into old age and faces health decline only in a few short months/weeks before their death i.e. their mortality curve represents a square. Its a central topic in longevity research focused on increasing "healthspan" over lifespan.

I would like to posit a similar concept here, let's call it the "Creation Curve". The Creation Curve represents our intent to take action (do stuff, make things, create etc.). Similar to the mortality curve, the Creation Curve also starts out high during early age, that is, when we are young we are always looking excitedly forward to do things (even though we might not know how to do them or that our attention span on individual pursuits might be fleeting). As we grow older we start to impose artificial limits on ourselves when it comes to taking action/creative pursuits, our modern lifestyles are to blame here too, with so many companies and their products designed to ensure that we keep consuming that it has become a social norm to be a "consumer". We think the best use of our time is in front of the TV or scrolling through whatever social platform gives us the most dopamine hit. As a result the Creation Curve starts declining as less and less of our time is spent on creating things. And by the time the fourth or fifth decade of our life rolls by we are so deeply engrossed in consumption that we only create as much as is required to keep the consumption cycle going. So, we will do only so much at our jobs as to not get fired and ensure that we are able to pay for our Netflix subscription or our monthly wardrobe shopping at Amazon.

Surprisingly, we start to genuinely believe that the main goal of life is consumption and hence creation should only be limited to the extent that it keeps our personally defined level of consumption going. Going above and beyond in creation seems wasteful and a theft from the time we could have spent consuming. We feel it's okay to just "get by" as long as it's not too uncomfortable. Modern day zombies.

I feel that there is a need to square the Creation Curve as well: a deliberate attempt to ensure that we remain vigorous creators and action-takers till our last moments. Instead of accepting consumption as the default state of our lives, it is important to either understand through own experience or accept wisdom of leaders such as Roosevelt, that there is value only in taking action. There is enough evidence showing that flow states are achieved not through consumption but through meaningful creation (i.e. creating something that you feel is worth creating). And by being deeply conscious of the contribution we are making every day (or better, at every moment), by honestly answering the following question daily: "What did I create today?", we can create the right scaffolding to enter flow states and do our creative best.

And just like the additional years of life we get on squaring the mortality curve, the benefit of squaring the Creation Curve are the many moments of happiness, learning and pride of having created something of value.

The necessary wall - Importance of self discipline for mastery

There are a million different things to do in the world, the modern world allows us to be "busy" in so many different ways that we're apparently the most distracted bunch of people that ever lived. In the world that we live in where everything is trying to grab our attention I think sometimes the more important question is "What should I not do?". Distracted people produce distracted results.

It is critically important to be deliberate in our action as well as our inaction. Many people think that taking massive action is about being busy all the time, it is not - Taking action is about being deliberate, not busy. If you spent your day jumping from one thing to the other, back and forth, not really focusing on one but really touching and going one thing after the other, then you might have been busy but you likely didn't get anything done.

There is a teaching in Buddhism about not mistaking the finger for the moon: the Buddha once said to imagine someone trying to show us the moon by pointing at it, the finger is what guides us to the moon, without it we might not notice the moon. But the pointing finger isn’t what matters most, its the moon that matters, the finger is only there to help us see the moon. I think people make the same mistake when deciding to espouse a life of action: they think that taking action is what is most important without thinking why they should take action in the first place.

If you are just focused on taking action, even if it is positive action, then any form of "busyness" will do and you can rapidly jump between any of these things too. But spreading yourself thin is not the point here. The point is to be deliberate about the reason WHY you want to take any action in the first place.

Self discipline is the necessary wall that prevents us from running around like mad men, creating a lot of ruckus but not really going anywhere. We need to carefully choose our actions keeping in mind how do they figure in our long term goals. Not just action, but meaningful action should be the guiding principle.

Human Doing

Growing up I was told that I was a "Human Being", now after some years of experience a better word would be "Human Doing", for I am nothing but the action I take. When I am working in office I become a worker, when I am taking care of my parents I become a affectionate son, when offering advice to my younger brother I become a caring brother, when working out I become a fitness enthusiast, when cooking food or repairing things around my house I become someone who can sustain himself - We don't do just "do" action, we "are" the action we do. Striving to take meaningful action in the present moment should be our goal in life.