Hi Reader,
It's June the first, at eleven p.m., and I nearly missed my self-imposed deadline to send out this letter. Again. The truth is, I am behind on this newsletter and late on a couple of other projects I swore would be wrapped up by spring.
This is the reality of my conundrum: I sit down to write to you on the day I promised I would, only to then remember that landing page that needs fixing, and the landing page reminds me of an email I haven't drafted, and the email reminds me that I need to revise my entire ethos again, because it’s not really clear yet.
Seven tabs later the newsletter is closed and the deadline is pushed to next month, because I can’t fire myself.
I've started to suspect that ambition, past a certain point, is just procrastination in other lighting. The more I want to do, the less I actually finish. Ideas are cheap and endless, but finishing is costly and rare.
So this month I'm attempting the busy act of doing less, deliberately. I'd like to be consistent more than I'd like to be insatiably curious. It turns out you cannot scatter yourself across a dozen worthy things and expect any single one to develop.
Attention is the one currency that doesn't refill while you sleep. Split it twelve ways and each project gets loose change. Pour it into one or a few at a time and you might get something finished.
"Perfection is attained not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing more to take away."
— Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, Wind, Sand and Stars
The trick, I think, is choosing the subtraction yourself, before the chaos chooses it for you.
Some questions to ponder this month:
- What am I still doing only because I once said I would?
- If I could finish just one thing in June, which would it be?
- Where am I mistaking motion for progress?
- What would I have to abandon for my work to actually get done?
- What becomes possible the moment I stop adding?
Let's see what gets finished.
Be well, and stay narrow.
—Maria