Exploring Another Country

 Last weekend I read 2 books: one on travel called Better Than Fiction 2 and another on writing: Light the Dark. Both speak about the same thing: the growth of the individual by exploring new places. Travel expands your world view while writing is a journey into the introspective life. Outer travel involves discoveries of a new culture, new people, and new locations that one grows through the experience of travel. The writing life similarly is a journey into the creative unconscious, where one can either venture forth in a spontaneous free writing voyage or in an itinerary of plot and scene making.

I wondered why I borrowed these 2 books at the same time until I realized that both talk about a journey to a different place. Everyone it seems wants to be in a different place which mostly achieves by traveling or reading. Writing is a much harder venture as involves personal courage and confidence. I watch videos about productivity on youtube where people talk about building a second brain and all sorts of techniques that one can do using different tools. Other videos talk about their desk set-up with multiple monitors and standing desks.

In fact, these videos are a specialty of content creators; people who embark on a new career create self-help videos such as advice on productivity or are self-styled experts in productivity tools and whatnot. These people are part of the creator economy and use youtube to monetize their passions mostly by being content creators. It is a new way of life that smart people pursue. It is a venture into creativity where one masters new skills such as video casting and internet advertising.

I picked up some of these ideas such as adding large monitors and following the techniques to be more productive. Pressures in the office require us to perform and such techniques expressed by these content creators are helpful. I also need to embark on my own journey to be a better squad leader at work. At a personal level, kickstarted my goal to be a novelist. Several new purchases of Apple mini, Apply iPad, remakable2 writing tablet, Android, and studying youtube videos have made me inch forward with a set of new tools to use.

This is the way my mind works with my desire to accumulate things in an attempt to jumpstart my goals without actually doing the work. I need to move towards a 'frictionless' process to do it in both my working and creative life. The momentary pause caused by doubt and procrastination is no longer possible if I want to achieve my dreams. It is like exploring a new country where one can imagine a different life with the new world that one discovers.