Victoria Retrospective

March has been a busy month. I had a lot of settling in to do, such as wrapping up things and work, figuring out my exercise habits, and putting my condo into proper order. There's still a lot more to do, of course, but grooves are staring to form.

But all of this grooviness really started to form in Victoria. With a chance to remove myself from all obligations and just meditate about life, I started to rediscover my goals, my motivations, and my habits. So I think it would be good to do a quick review of the lessons I learned in Victoria, as nicely summarized by the ninja lids.

To review, in order (with the one in the center last):

1: Arrival-Being

The initial state, and the beginning of idea and action, is just the state of being. Relax and observe.

It's easy to assume that action must be begun immediately, and that effective people are continually doing things. In truth, action without observation is essentially panic.

It is essential to find a moment to do nothing. In Victoria, I spent a lot of time doing nothing, which should be done now and again. During normal routine, however, a few minutes a day to do nothing is fine.

2: Testing!

The first thing babies start to do after being born is to test things out. They wiggle their fingers, blink their eyes, and squirm around, trying to understand this new life they've been born into. The same process occurs in the initial stages of software testing: the tester just pokes around, getting an intuitive feel for the program and its functionality.

It is useful to apply this type of testing to life in general. Try taking a new class now and then. Try new foods. Try going to new places.

3: Willpower

Willpower is the process of turning desire into reality through action. On a small scale, this can be getting a drink of water from the fridge. On a grand scale it could be writing a novel or maintaining good relationships with your family members. In both cases, if you stop doing it halfway through, you will fail. If you open the fridge but then wander off, you will still be thirsty. If you visit your family once and then never talk to them again, those relationships will weaken.

Most of the following lessons deal with how to succeed at applying willpower. It is not as easy as putting on a stern face and being stern with yourself, as we will soon see. In fact, not only is all that sternness not a lot of fun, but it's actually ineffective.

4: Possibility-Hope

Before willpower can be applied, you must first believe that there is any point in doing so. If you think you're doomed to fail, then why would you even try?

There is some subtlety to this. Sometimes it is necessary to stick to your principles even in the face of failure. To use a Hollywood trope, characters often fight impossible fights. But in some sense, they are able to fight these impossible fights because they believe they can succeed at doing the right thing, even if doing the right thing will end in a lost fight. While they may die in battle, they'll have succeeded in sticking to their principles. Now imagine a character who does not believe it is even possible, or worthwhile, to fight the impossible fight, but just gives up on the spot. That is a sad character indeed.

I don't have any keen observations in how to sustain a sense of possibility and hope. But if you find it lacking, then this is where you need to start. Find hope, any hope, even if that hope is simply to do something principled in the face of impossibility.

5: Focus

If willpower is sustained action, then a serious threat to willpower is distraction. Focus is the art of prioritizing what goals are worth pursuing, which actions will lead to said goal, and then maintaining your awareness of those actions so that you accomplish them.

Focus can be great for overcoming temporary unpleasantness in the task. For example, cleaning the house might involve taking out the garbage or cleaning a litter box--not inherently pleasant activities. But if you know what your goal is and why these actions are important, you can find yourself not minding the chore, or even enjoying it!

Important aside: Don't take this to mean that distraction is inherently a bad thing. In fact, distraction is a healthy and important process, as it leads to discovery and fun. It is only a threat to willpower. Willpower, like all good things, needs to be taken in moderation. Have willpower for parts of your life and day, but not all parts.

6: Action-Joy

This concept of action is symbolized by physical movement, but it could also apply to making plans about projects or careers. It is quite simple, in that it is simply a celebration of the joy of action.

As human beings, we enjoy movement. We enjoy going for walks. We enjoy driving in cars. We enjoy going for boat rides. Look at any amusement park, and look for an activity that doesn't involve human movement.

The same is true for larger-scale action. We like imagining big plans.

Embrace that joy.

7: Perseverance-Enjoyment

And now, the true secret of willpower: enjoy yourself. All of these hyphenated words are yin-yang equivalencies. That is, I believe perseverance and enjoyment are not simply similar or related, but are, in fact, different facets of the same concept. If you enjoy something, you will persevere at it. If you want to persevere at something, find a way to enjoy it.

This is the problem with trying to have willpower by being stern, or by trying to drive yourself with guilt: it takes all the enjoyment out of the activity. Given that perseverance is enjoyment, this means you are undermining your perseverance. While you can force yourself to persevere for a while, you'll soon run out of steam and, most importantly, you'll be miserable. If if you do keep it up for a long time, you'll eventually look back on that time and wonder why you bothered.

8: Practice

This isn't so much the eighth in the series, but rather the Gestalt that the other seven create if you remember to apply them regularly.

Remember to just be.
Remember to try new things.
Remember to apply willpower to things you want to accomplish.
Remember to have hope and to see possibility.
Remember to focus on what is important.
Remember to feel joy in taking action.
Remember to enjoy the things you wish to persevere at.

This isn't a total picture of how to live life, of course--the only total picture of life is life itself. These are just a few observations that one person happened to make while having a pleasant time in Victoria.

Doing these things well is Ninja.
By being Not Quite good at something, you must practice to improve.
This is why I attempt to be Not Quite Ninja.

Thank you very much to Mark and Karen for letting me stay with them, and for educating me with their wisdom.
Thank you very much to Luna for being exactly herself the way that only a dog can.
Thank you very much to my parents for their love and intelligence.
Thank you very much readers for putting up with my momentary sentimentality.