“We got taught for 12 or 16 years at school, that our job was to get an “A”, that if we are defective we fail – we were reprocessed, sent back a grade and had to do it again. This idea that we better be right, that we better be perfect, that we better get it all correct, goes deep within us.
The industrialists wanted that to happen, because it makes us a better factory worker, it makes us better at following specific instructions.
When something comes along that might not work we feel “The Tension”. “The Tension” of experiencing two things at the same time:
- This might work. That’d be great!
- This might not work. I’m gonna be doomed!
“The Tension” exists when we feel both of those at the same time. If you’re not feeling both at the same time then you’re probably not doing your best work, you’re probably not having your most honest relationships, you’re probably not inventing the future, you’re simply a victim of the future.
So, “The Tension” isn’t something to avoid, it’s something to seek out, because that’s what it is to be a professional today. To go to that place where we feel – as Steve Pressfield calls it; “The Resistance”. “The Resistance” [think about the tension in a rubber band] pulling us away from the place where we might be able to make a difference.
I think it’s possible to learn that when that tension shows up, we should lean toward it, not away from it. It’s possible to learn that that’s actually our job, that as a professional or mere writing or speaking or typing or engaging or inventing – “The Tension” – that place where we feel it, that is what we’re getting paid to do.
Thats’ when our chance shows up for us to do our best work. ”
– An excerpt from Seth Godin’s podcast “Akimbo”: https://www.akimbo.me/
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