neil fiore

In the drive to be productive, it is easy to eliminate play from our routines. Certainly play is the opposite of productivity, right? Neil Fiore suggests the opposite in The Now Habit:

From studying the performance styles of achievers, I have learned how essential guilt-free play is to attaining quality work and minimizing procrastination. A firm commitment to guilt-free play will recharge your batteries, creating renewed motivation, creativity, and energy for all the other areas of your life.

Earlier today, I had a conversation with a friend who just returned from two months in Tuscany. He moved in with a family that own a small vineyard and helped them with the grape harvest. He had no access to email, and not even a pen and paper to jot down things he needed to remember to do. It was just him, the vines, and a breathtaking view every day.

As he described it, he has returned home with a renewed understanding of what it means to live in the moment. The worries and concerns of daily life took a break, and he found pleasure. He has a new sense of confidence and discovery as he moves into each day.

I know it might not be reasonable for you to jet away to Tuscany for two months. It certainly isn’t for me! But the play that Fiore describes captures some of what my friend experienced. To play is to temporarily let go of control and engage with possibility:

It is in playing that we build confidence in the reliability of our creativity and our excitement about discovery — the movement from not-knowing to knowing, from lack of control over problems to control and resolution of problems.

Play is a leap of faith, a step into an arena of unknowing. And as we create a way forward by making it up as we go, we remember that we can do the same in the “real world”. We can step into the next moment knowing that we don’t need to have control, but that we can form the way as we go. Play leads us into the world of possibility — a possibility that is a launching place for creating and producing what we haven’t yet imagined.

And by the way, if you don’t even know where to start…I always recommend a good solid reading of Dr. Seuss. He started with And to Think That I Saw it On Mulberry Street; maybe you could too.

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Throughout The Now Habit, Neil Fiore draws a contrast between producers and procrastinators. His idea of the producer matches up with what I think of as a creative person — one who practices creativity.

A creative person is not only someone who does art, though art should always be a celebrated product of creativity. A creative person is someone who can generate ideas and put them into play — they produce something. It could be an article, a film short, a painting, a photo essay, a manifesto, a strategic plan, or even a blog post!

Fiore emphasizes the different mindset between producers and procrastinators: Of all the characteristics that separate producers from procrastinators, none is more liberating than the producer’s focus on ‘choice’ and ‘choosing.’ The procrastinator is overwhelmed by the burden of what is to be done, even if it is something that they want to do. The language focuses on what they “have” to do. The producer emphasizes their own personal choice even in the language they use with themselves.

This simple chart from page 77 shows the different language each might use.

Thanks again for reading. I have to, er, I choose to go now.

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While driving 2300 miles from Seattle to Austin this past summer, I thought it might be a good opportunity to listen to the audiobook version of The Now Habit, by Neil Fiore.

It wasn’t.

Not that it isn’t a helpful book. It is. In fact, that was the problem. I was about an hour into the seven and a half hour recording when I realized that there was too much in this book for me to digest audibly. A few weeks later, I tried to listen to it while mowing the lawn, figuring I could concentrate on it more.

I couldn’t.

Well, I could, but not enough. It only reinforced the fact that I would need to see the words on the page to do this book justice. So I ordered it, and now I’ve read it. (And I’m glad I have the audiobook to go back and revisit some of Fiore’s ideas.)

I don’t get too excited about self-help style books. Most of them seem to be straight-forward common sense that leave me feeling foolish for investing time or money in them. The Now Habit shouldn’t be confused with one of these books. Though it does offer practical guidance for dealing with procrastination, it first digs into some rich thinking about why we procrastinate, forcing its readers to take a deep look at themselves. (I already gave a peek at some of these ideas in my week 9 reflections on The Artist’s Way.)

Besides a good soul scouring, The Now Habit has given me several workflow adjustments, a few of which I’ll be sharing in upcoming posts. You know, when I feel like it. Or get around to it.

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I’m posting my reflections earlier this week because some of this material has been sticking with me a lot. To mix it up, allow me to offer a few quotes from the chapter that captured, and troubled, me:

• The need to be a great artist makes it hard to be an artist. The need to produce a great work of art makes it hard to produce any art at all. (pg 152)
• Over any extended period of time, being an artist requires enthusiasm more than discipline. Enthusiasm is not an emotional state. It is a spiritual commitment, a loving surrender to our creative process, a loving recognition of all the creativity around us. (pg 153)
• We’re more comfortable being a victim of artist’s block than risking having to consistently be productive and healthy. (pg 154)

I also began reading The Now Habit, by Neil Fiore, this week. Much of what he says goes along with Cameron’s thoughts, so here are a few of his ideas to extend your thoughts about the theme this week:

• People don’t procrastinate just to be ornery or because they’re irrational. They procrastinate because it makes sense, given how vulnerable they feel to criticism, failure, and their own perfectionism. (pg 3)
• we procrastinate when we fear a threat to our sense of worth and independence. (pg 15)
• procrastination is not a character defect; rather, it is an attempt — albeit an unsatisfactory one — at coping with the often incapacitating fear of having our worth held up for judgment. (pg 16)
• When we identify our worth with our work (”I am what I do”) we naturally are reluctant to face challenges and take risks without self-protective defenses. If you believe that a judgment of your work is a judgment of yourself, then perfectionism, self-criticism, and procrastination are necessary forms of protection. (pg 24)

I imagine I’ll have more response to share from The Now Habit in the future, but it seemed good to share the thoughts above alongside The Artist’s Way this week.

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