Donkeys and cocktails
Now and again, I glance through my diary. I use the Day One Journal app. It’s a great tool to keep everything in one place, photos, videos, and scribbles. My first entry was a brief account of desk shopping that turned into buying two books, Jordan Peterson’s Beyond Order and The Chanel Sisters by Judith Little, for my wife.
I had one thing to do.
I have argued that it is a sign that patience is required to get the desired result when I don’t do the one thing I was supposed to do. We ended up using, or should I say reusing, two other tables by just putting them together to get the desk width we needed. My attention deficit saved money and, with that, a pledge to the circular degrowth economy.
Scrolling further, past all the million dollar ideas and the dodgy businezz men I have met over the last eight years, I get to one of my favorite quotes and the most relevant on what I have aimed to do the previous, well, while.
“Don’t be a donkey.” Based on an ancient fable - Buridan’s ass. A donkey stands between water and a bale of hay, torn by the decision to make. He dies of hunger and thirst.
I love this quote because it reminds me that I must
look at what distractions I’ve added to my life. Leading me to “networking.” I ended my cocktails distraction in a jilting fashion in mid-2022. I like meeting new people, but there is something awkward about meeting people to meet people.
It’s like going on a blind date with a robot. You have a problem that the person is not a person, but somehow you’ve asked, so what is good here?
The point is that the donkey needs help to think long-term and plan and prioritize. Single-tasking is better than multitasking, as illustrated by Jean Buridan in the 14th century. So why have we tried to reinvent the wheel? I think because distractions like networking (I have nothing against blind dates) kill time and aid blindness to the things that require our focus.
I experienced a tough career setback in 2019 and didn’t have much to turn to when I realized my ambition had become my only identity. It took me a while to act, leave a distraction position, and choose the long-term view.
To me, a career break to explore living without fighting for something. Ironically, exploring one thing at a time created the capacity for more, exploring a startup idea, working with an incubator, consulting, and learning new sports.
And new cocktail recipes, of course.
Photo by Daniel Fazio on Unsplash