Thoughts on Muddling Along, Perfection, and Mastery

[helwen]

Interesting Archdruid Report this week. And as usual I enjoyed reading the comments too. I always have to make sure I'm firing on all cylinders when I read it, because some rather highly educated people contribute to it from time to time, so the language can be a bit on the Academese side... As the articles have progressed from the more hypothetical and long view of things to the more immediate though, I'm finding more points that I can relate to personal experience. But having some of the previous articles as 'back story' isn't a bad thing.

I've found that many skills are useful to have in life, the better to handle situations that come up -- be those skills hands-on like gardening or soldering, or mental ones like research, management and planning, or emotional/psychological ones like meditation or humor. And of course adaptability, although I'm not sure that's a skill per se, as much as a personal characteristic... one can choose to hone it though so, hm... I'm not a great thinker, at least not in that way, so I'll leave that to other folks.

This week's A. Report talked in part about how it isn't possible to create the perfect plan for dealing with the eventual transition from fossil fuels to other forms of energy, and that instead there may be several plans, and that we will likely have to work things out as we go along. I couldn't agree more, not just about the subject matter, but about doing things in life in general.

Which is not to say we shouldn't do research, plan, learn various skills, etc. And there's the frustration of trying to figure out which skills you should learn -- well, you can't do it all, so instead learn also about who does the things you'd like access to (i.e., lots of people here raise sheep, so I don't have to, yay! I can buy/trade for wool).

You do have to start somewhere, have at least a basic framework. But it often is a bad idea to completely commit to one 'perfect' plan/goal/ideal. Why? Well for one thing, if/when you don't achieve it, it's rather disappointing! But also, it's hard to take into account everything that could possibly affect one's plans. There are even sayings about this: "The best laid plans of mice and men gang oft aglay", and "No plan survives contact with the enemy", and others.

We can try to plan for some of those possible things, and that isn't a bad idea either. Some folks won't do that, and I've found those to be rather stressful people to be around. Life happens. It's an organic process. Everything is always changing, evolving, and there's way too much to keep track of.

In the economics courses I took in college, we learned about how the gov't may try things like lowering or raising the interest rate to help out the economy, but it takes time for that to have an effect, and it needs to match up with appropriate elements of the economy to work -- they're essentially looking over what the trends are, and trying to apply changes at what they hope are the right times. But since they aren't looking at all the trends, and since it's kind of like herding 300 million cats... eh. Glad I don't have their jobs; this country is too large for a single plan...

Heck, we can't even apply a single alternative energy plan to this country. What works well in southern California won't be a fit in Massachusetts. For that matter, what works in southern CA may not work as well in far northern CA. Even in little Massachusetts, the energy options vary by geographical location -- especially true in the hills, of course. Hard to do much with solar if you're on the north side of a mountain, or do a lot with wind if you're in the lee of a vale. Passive geothermal works pretty well in the warmer part of the year, but the winters are too hard here for the motor to keep going -- it freezes.

As a massage therapist, I've seen trends in types of stresses, tight spots, injuries that people get, but I don't make the assumption that everyone is the same and can be treated the same. The environment is the same way, only more complex. If each type of plant, creature, area of land is unique, how can anyone conceive a perfect plan? Most of us can't even get one whole day to go as expected!

But while the perfect plan is right out, the knowledge I have and the trends I've seen with my clients help me to know what sorts of things to look for, as a way to start exploring what needs to be done. Then as I go along, I find out what else needs work, and fine tune the treatment. The base plan is formulated during discussion before we start, and then at the star of treatment I determine appropriate amount of pressure to apply, etc. It isn't perfect, and I need regular feedback from the client. Also, conditions can change, sometimes suddenly, and you have to be prepared to respond immediately. I do medical (deep tissue, accupressure, other types) as well as relaxation types of massage, and often blend them. (I'm hoping to explore some more gentler methods than deep tissue eventually... easier on me and the clients, and more skills are a good thing.)

Art is like that too -- you have a plan, draw out the design, then something happens -- ink blot, gesso being funky, thread that has been fine for hours starts kinking, etc. Oh, and we discovered that moving was like this too :D

This is why one of my favorite things to do is showing people how to repair mistakes $ broken things, or do things like creative insulation, etc. Sometimes it's the most creative part of a process, although it's probably the part with which many people are most uncomfortable. Why is that? I think it's because we're striving so hard for our goals, that we forget we and the world around us aren't predictable and static. The expectations we set for ourselves are often quite unreasonable, and worse are the expectations we think other people have for us. So when something doesn't go according to plan...

Another problem for folks is the acknowledging that uncertainty exists. Part of that goes back to expectations -- we must plan for all obstacles, seen and unforeseen!! Part is because people are generally more comfortable not having to think about the rug being pulled out from under them. That's understandable, and at times I don't like it myself, altho' sometimes it's kind of fun, at least if you're going into a project knowing the outcome is an unknown ;)

But life is what it is, and part of it is that darn rug. Solutions? A big part of being able to pick up the pieces is being able to let go. Don't invest so much of yourself that when the plan changes it breaks you. Remember that you are a capable person. Focus not on how sometimes things have gone wrong, but on how you were able to deal with the situation. Get help if you need it -- no shame in that, sooner or later we all gt to be on one side of the equation or the other. Accept that things will go 'wrong', and that what comes out of it may not be what you were trying for, but it may be the best outcome possible, at least for now. Cherish the skills you learn in response to handling change. Laugh, because it beats the heck out of crying.

Mastery is not attained by creating perfect things -- that is craftsmanship. Mastery is attained by learning to adapt to what is.

Comments

[flidaisairmid.livejournal.com]

One thought came to me while reading your excellent post- as a Reiki healer the same is true as you have discovered with massage therapy. No two people are alike - tightness in muscles often shows up as "interesting" energy in the persons field. One thing I have been pondering is that perhaps another reason why there is no one universal solution to the problems we face is not only geographic, but the different energy fields of different geographic locations. The east coast feels very different energetically than the midwest or west or south, and so on and so on. The earth itself has an energetic field, much like any other body. If one took these things into consideration, perhaps more realistic working solutions can be found for more people. It's an out there sort of thought, but one hat keeps pulling at my attention. You are absolutely correct with many points about what is possible for anyone, and we would all benefit by making even these small steps in the big picture.

[helwen.livejournal.com]

Hm, could be. We know some places are better fits for some people than others. I've lived on both the east and west coasts, and could adapt to the Pacific Northwest or up into Maine, maybe even Canada -- as long as I'm within 100 miles of the coast and there's some sort of seasonal change and it isn't flat. Most of the time I don't need to see the ocean, but I want the option of being able to make the trip there.

And some areas are hard for anyone to deal with - funky magnetics an/or bad history... interesting thought.

[kass-rants.livejournal.com]

This is a wonderful piece that I hope you and your journal readers will look back upon often, H. It reminds me of something Bob tells me when I get upset when a plan isn't coming to fruition: No battle plan ever survives contact. I used to get very anxious when a plan went awry, even a little bit, and still do to a lesser extent. But a therapist once told me, "You can't control the wind. But you *can* control your sails!" So make a plan and stick your plan as best you can. But if things go TU, be flexible enough to go to plan B.

Being in business for myself and drawing my only living from that has taught me a great deal, and the most important thing it's taught me is flexibility. You have to plan. Not planning is just sticking your head in the sand and wishing. That never works. And abandoning a plan too quickly because it doesn't seem to be working is equally foolish. But going down with a sinking ship is insanity.

So yeah. Plan. Make a bunch of them. But don't be so married to it that you can't switch horses when need be.

At least, that's what I'm doing. Every day. =)

[helwen.livejournal.com]

Thanks, glad you liked it. It's something I've tried to share with all my students and other artisans who are stressing on this point over the years. I found that solutions are generally easier to find if you aren't busy trying to beat the wall of the problem down, instead of standing back and seeing the situation openly, from all sides.

Have a great weekend!

[baavgai.livejournal.com]

The word you want is dukkha.

Ok, actually it's the word that came to my mind, probably because it reminds me of dookie, but that's another story. It's a term used in Buddhism and is usually translated as "suffering", but has number of milder translations. One of the forms of dukkha is change; that is, stuff you planned on changed and resulted in, well, dookie.

The proposed solution to this kind of anxiety is to not get too attached an expected outcome. Sure, there's a desired outcome, but greater the desire, the greater the rigidity, the more likely and crushing the failure.

Taoist like to say stuff like "the only constant in the Universe is change." Which is a amusing, if not overly helpful. However, it's usually followed by some explanation of wu wei, which is basically how life harmoniously with what's there and not what you expect to be there.

To explain wu wei, Taoism uses innumerable pithy fortune cookie sayings; like "bamboo bends where oak splinters." I always thought Chuang Tsu was little more coherent that Lao Tsu in that regard.

Both very similar ideas and both came to mind while reading your musings.

[helwen.livejournal.com]

Exactly! All of the above :)

Tao Te Ching was one of my bedside books for a while (no room at the moment). I'd randomly pick a spot to go to and read, as my 'bedtime story'.

Mind you, I'm better at letting some things go than others (in particular letting some people do parts of projects that I'm more comfortable doing myself). But no point in 'preaching' something unless you're willing to practice it, so I keep working at it. Moving here was good practice for that, in fact!

To a great extent I enjoy the process of change though, because without being willing to let go and be open to what's out there, I would not have encountered many excellent and unique opportunities I have so far. So the uncertainty overall bothers me very little, knowing that good things can come of it.

And, much less in the way of suffering and dookie this way too -- altho' you might say some of this view came out of suffering. I went through a series of lousy experiences in my 20s, most of which I won't go into here. But part of the tail-end of that was a car accident, at which point I decided I didn't have time to waste on everyday stupidness or looking for a security blanket in the usual forms that people expect them. My strength has always been my ability to learn and adapt, so that's a large part of where my true security lies -- I have a ridiculous number of skills and bits of knowledge, and the ability to use them in creative ways. L is much the same way; we make a good team :)

We're generally gravitating toward similar sorts of people these days, and also folks who are open to learning and trying different things. Sort of a think tank for regular, not-rich people...

I think I've strayed from the post now, but really, despite the seriousness of things happening in the world today I'm pretty happy in my 'constant state of change' most of the time. I have way too much fun in the learning and doing, and I get to know lots of cool people like you, and loosecanon too ;)

[oakmouse]

Excellent post!

I'm reminded of a quote from the Duke of Wellington, speaking of how he handled the constant flow of disruptions, complications, and other problems that beset his army during the Peninsular War: "The French plans are like splendid leather harness which is perfect when it works, but if it breaks it cannot be mended. I make my harness of ropes, it is never as good-looking as the French, but if it breaks I can tie a knot and carry on."

One of the reasons I've made a lot of the life choices I have is that my choices have enabled me to tie a knot and go on, even in the face of some pretty disruptive events. I'd rather adapt and be flexible, even if learning to do so sometimes has a high price tag.

[helwen.livejournal.com]

Excellent quote and philosophy!

[loosecanon.livejournal.com]

I have been thinking about this, though in different language, and from a different angle as well lately.

We can only plan so far before chaos interferes. Of course, in planning our own course, we are intersecting with the plans of others, and must be aware that we are their chaos, as they are ours.

As I recently discussed with someone else, no one writes books about boring trips where nothing goes wrong, and if they do, nobody buys them. All of the interesting parts of life are caused by the chaos, we can't plan for surprises.

[fitzw.livejournal.com]

Reminds me of the sentiment of a character in a series we read recently: "Adventures are bad things that happen to other people far away."