“I need structure!”
“I need freedom!”
“I need a completely elusive, yet perfect blend of both!”
The Musical Metaphor: Lessons from the Violent Femmes
Driving the streets of Chicago, enjoying the city lights, the radio sounds off with an amazing live rendition of the Violent Femmes’ *Add it Up!*.
I’ve been a huge fan of theirs since high school, so what could I do but turn it up?
As with so many of their tunes, I could sing along years after hearing it last without forgetting a single word. But on this particular car ride, I heard wonderfully messy sounds, clearly improvised and impossible to reproduce. It was as if Gordan Gano turned to the others and said, “let’s just bash things together and see what happens”.
And still, the song worked. It remained the same piece, easily recognized as nothing but itself, a solid structure holding it all together underneath.
The Delicate Dance of Creativity and Discipline
Isn’t there the same delight when we discover a play in work? Where we feel that whatever direction we head, we’re moving forward? Where a rich and welcoming challenge awaits us in one area or the next?
Those elusive moments can seem impossible to find deliberately. What if the muse only appears at her whim and not ours?
Subscribing too heavily to such notions could lead us down a wallowing path of “I don’t wanna” and “I can’t be bothered,” hoping that a desire would one day well of its own accord.
Much certainly occurs outside of conscious awareness. But much occurs when we deliberately craft our conditions.
And the muse does seem to favor some conditions.
Fine, but how do we compose those conditions? How do we create those structures to support and guide us through?
As with music, we begin with a single beat. We continue with a second.
The Power of Showing Up: One Breath at a Time
A Visit-based approach to work does the same. At its simplest, a Visit is this:
- Show up to a thing
- Stay for at least one single deep breath.
- Then decide what to do, (which could include stepping away)
- Preferably, do this daily until
- You consciously decide to set it aside, again preferably at the end of a visit
We may well do nothing at a Visit, which of course may appear to be a silly notion. Of what good is “doing nothing”?
But listen to any solid piece of music and you will hear an elegant silence between phrases, subtly and powerfully framing guides for our attention.
In those times, we are directly exposed to the waves of emotions. As with work, simply being there can help us get unstuck from some disconnected rumination.
“What if I did this?”
“What if I did that?”
Each visit becomes a beat around which structures come to mind. Nudges here and there create the harmonies and motifs dancing within and between the beats.
Beyond the beat begins with being there, at the keys, at the document, at the thing, where we can greet the muse should she decide to appear.
– Kourosh
PS. *Blister in the Sun* is fun karaoke.
PPS If you haven’t checked it out already, download a thing about the Visit (PDF).
