Resting State
September 6, 2023
Current location: Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA
Reading: The Avoidable War by Kevin Rudd
Listening: Too Good by Rayana Jay(if you have a moment, reply with your own 3-item status via email or in the comments)
Resting State
One of my superpowers is figuring out how to do something big and cumbersome and specific, breaking it up into smaller (but still incredibly boring and exhausting) pieces, and then—importantly—settling in to just finish the thing.
Imagine being good at strategically slamming your head against a wall over and over and over again, and that’s a pretty decent approximation of what this looks and feels like in real life.
This capability seems to be associated with a near-compulsion to finish things: to close loops that would otherwise taunt me, lingering on my to-do list (and in the back of my mind) until I make the time and expend the energy to rid myself of them, liberating me to move on to something else that needs doing.
This capacity to endure (and even, bizarrely, seek out) productive punishment is pretty great if you want to (for instance) write a book, learn how to do something new, or prepare a talk, all of which are multi-stage endeavors that can soak up gobs of one's attention, require unusual volumes of maintained focus, and tend to necessitate facing one's own self-doubt head-on, over and over (and over) again.
What structure I have in my life is partially a response to this tendency, as it allows me to guide my efforts toward larger goals with decent accuracy, but also helps me turn these same propensities toward offsetting, healthful undertakings, like stepping away from work to read, exploring someplace unfamiliar to me, and getting plenty of sleep: things that might otherwise fall by the wayside if I allowed myself to succumb completely to more overtly “productive” inclinations.
This has been on my mind recently because I’ve been engaging in what feels like a psychological marathon, making changes to the guts of several projects that are financial capstones of my larger portfolio of efforts, and while part of me has wanted to sprint the whole thing, to just get it out of the way, I’ve been forcing myself to pause periodically, catch my breath, metaphorically (and at times, literally) stretch and eat and rehydrate, so as to not overstrain my system, and to ensure I’m doing things optimally at each stage along the way.
Extending this sort of arduous undertaking is not ideal when you desperately want to just finish up and move on, but sometimes it’s the best-fit option, both for the project and for one’s health and overall lifestyle balance.
Moving too fast and too mono-focused would leave me prone to mistakes I don’t notice till later, requiring a lot of otherwise unnecessary revising and rebuilding, and it can also destabilize the things to which I don’t pay as much attention while in the depths of drudgery—vital concerns like my health, relationships, and the other (non-work) things I enjoy doing.
There’s part of me that worries I’m losing my edge in focusing on balance in these undertakings, as there was a time when I was more cavalier with such things, the writing of a new book or other major production approached more like a period of heavy drinking than a process meant to be healthfully replicable; I told myself I’d recover when it was done, and as a consequence would semi-regularly flop pendulously between extremes.
I typically frame this transition as an evolution rather than a diminishment, though, as my life, today, is richer and more sustainably and consistently satisfying than what I was able to muster a decade ago, and I suspect that finding a more moderate (if still quite unusual and me-shaped) resting state has been a key component of that growth.
If you found value in this essay, consider buying me a coffee or becoming a paid subscriber :)
Video Essay
This week’s video essay is an experiment, seeing if the You Probably Don’t Need (consumption-skeptical recommendations) format translates to video.
I love the app I’m recommending, and there’s no sponsorship/affiliate/anything like that associated with my commentary. I mention this in the video, but please don’t buy things just to buy things, including digital (app) things! Digital clutter is still clutter.
Likes, shares, and subscribes are all super-appreciated, and if you have a question you’d like me to answer in a future video, drop me a YouTube comment or email :)
Interesting & Useful
Examples of Every Letter Being Silent
“The letter A is silent in a bunch of words that include -ea, such as bread, dread, head, thread, and spread. The letter A also remains quiet in a bunch of adverbs that end in -ically, such as basically, stoically, logically, frantically, fanatically, magically, and tragically. A few words also have a silent A at the beginning that doesn’t seem to do much of anything, such as aisle and aesthetic.”
Mapping the Largest Cities Throughout History
“Mapper and history YouTuber Ollie Bye has visualized the seven largest cities in the world since 3,000 BCE. His video covers cities with a minimum population of 10,000 and hints at historical events which led to the establishment, growth, and eventual fall of cities.”
A visual history of Sony product design through the decades.
Outro
I mentioned this last week, but I’m still elbows-deep in the process of moving some of my (currently too-dispersed) projects to Substack: a process that’s tedious and exhausting and at times worrying, but which also saves me a lot of time and energy after the dust has settled and things are more consolidated on this single platform.
I still have qualms about Substack (the lack of a bulk editor is part of why moving Let’s Know Things, which has more than 400 episodes, was such a chore) and relying too much on a single service for so many things has me breaking out in hives.
But the tools they’ve introduced really have been compelling, and I like the idea of being able to offer written, email-delivered and web-based content (with community-engagement options) alongside my audio work, all in the same place.
The next step is getting more paid-subscription infrastructure transferred over, which will be stressful and cumbersome, but ultimately for the best, I think.
In other news, today’s meant to be the peak of our heatwave here in Milwaukee, but I’m on my way up to Door County for my girlfriend’s next gallery opening event, so I’ll be noting the transition back to non-Colin-melting conditions from up north, where it’s a little cooler, regardless.
Happy September! What are you up to this month? Any big plans for the rest of the year? Drop me a quick note and tell me what’s up, something about yourself, and/or share a photo of your pet. Reply directly to this newsletter or send an email to colin@exilelifestyle.com—I respond to every message I receive!
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This is right where I am....somedays I'm writing a poem, somedays I'm reviewing the blueprint for what seems like a galactic palace. Bless us who are makers of many things. Thanks for your continual shine!