VICIOUS CIRCLES OF INACTION

 Look at this diagram.

This is my Christmas greeting.

It’s a reflection on mental blocks and the tendency to give up on tasks and projects.

There are many things I don’t know how to do.
But I’m learning to do some of them.

There are tasks that take me a long time. Others don’t turn out well, and I have to repeat them.

Some make me feel exasperated.

Sometimes, I feel like giving up and sticking only to the things I already know how to do.

But that would limit my creativity to just a handful of activities.

Then I remember when I was a child and didn’t know how to tie my shoes.

Or when, while writing, I confused b with d and p with q, or drew the number 5 with its belly backward.

Over time, I learned to tie sailor knots, and I even managed to write a few things worth publishing.

That’s why, when I face something that doesn’t quite work out, I think of the diagram of the VICIOUS CIRCLE OF INACTION and make an effort to break it.

As we know, at first, we don’t know that we don’t know; this is UNCONSCIOUS INCOMPETENCE (we’re immature and unaware of it).

Then we realize that we don’t know and want to improve: this is CONSCIOUS INCOMPETENCE (we become aware of our immaturity and start looking for ways to overcome it).

Next, we start “tying our shoes”: the knot comes undone, we try another way, we need to pay a lot of attention, and it takes us a long time to succeed—until, finally, the shoes are tied. This is the stage of CONSCIOUS COMPETENCE (we strive to improve; it’s difficult; we fail and try again until we succeed).

Finally, we can “tie our shoes” without paying much attention to the task. We can do it while talking to our partner or glancing around to see where we might have left our phone (we master the task, and it no longer causes us much stress to perform it).

The VICIOUS CIRCLE OF INACTION can serve as a warning to encourage us to venture into uncharted territories we often avoid exploring.

If we don’t do something because we don’t know how, the only way to learn is to START DOING IT! (no matter how difficult it may seem).

I sincerely wish you happy holidays and all the best for the new year—one that already marks a quarter of a century!