Facing the Dragon
Accepting the reality of our flaws is a difficult but necessary step if we want to become better.
What you are afraid to do is a clear indicator of the next thing you need to do.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
We can’t change what we won’t accept.
The most damaging character flaws are the ones we’re most likely to ignore, but we can’t change them until we accept reality.
Cal Newport, the author of Deep Work and Slow Productivity, frequently discusses the phenomenon of frantic knowledge workers desperately trying to optimize elaborate task management systems or blame external forces instead of facing the reality that they have too much on their plate.
To overcome endless busyness, Newport encourages what he calls “facing the productivity dragon”. He suggests taking a step back from the day-to-day grind to take stock of everything that’s on our plates and make a complete list of our responsibilities and how long everything will take.
There’s usually not enough time in the day to do everything we’ve agreed to. Facing the productivity dragon means pausing to understand and accept the reality that we can’t continue with the same approach. We must make a change.
This stark reality is scary, disappointing, and discouraging, but identifying it and creating a realistic plan to deal with it is necessary to do our best work.
Newport speaks of this idea in the context of professional productivity, but we all have dragons we need to face in different areas of our lives.
Accepting reality
We all have something we need to fix in our lives, and we know how to do it, but we don’t.
In today’s world, a lack of information or understanding is no longer an excuse.
In moments, we can find all of the information we need to improve any area of our lives. We can even find or create personalized step-by-step guides and tutorials, or connect with a real person who has done what we want to do with a few clicks.
The reason we don’t address these things is that trying to fix them requires that we accept the fact that our approach isn’t working. To make a change, we need to face our dragon, accept that what we’re doing today isn’t working, and admit that it’s our fault.
Only after we face reality and accept ownership can we begin to implement all of the information and guidance we have available to fix it.
Becoming better
In most cases, the hardest part of facing our dragons is not adding or removing the one behavior required to fix the problem. The hardest part is adapting all of the other areas of our lives to make sure that change sticks.
Improving our diet isn’t as simple as eating different foods. It requires that we reevaluate our exercise routine, social calendar, daily schedule, and emotional relationship with food. What seems like a simple habit change on the surface is actually a deep and complicated web of transformation.
We’re not just changing our lifestyle, we’re changing our identity.
The reason we don’t fix these problems even though we’ve known about them and dealt with the consequences for years is that it’s easier to maintain our identity and live with the consequences of a damaging habit or character flaw than it is to change our identity and become a better person.
To make meaningful progress towards becoming a better person, we have to accept that we’re not the best person we could be today. That’s a difficult thing to admit.
Facing our dragons is intimidating. It’s an incredible amount of work for an uncertain outcome, but it’s the only option to become better.
We can continue to ignore the glaring holes in ourselves and accept the consequences, or face our dragons, accept reality, and do the work to become better.
We all have something we need to fix. We don’t need a better plan, better timing, or more information; we need the courage to face it and accept the person we become.
Prompts
What does facing your dragon look like? What is the reality you need to accept?
What’s the one thing you need to fix?
How will your life improve if you fix it? What happens if you continue to do nothing?
Deep Dive
Facing the Productivity Dragon - The Deep Questions Podcast
A guide to “facing the productivity dragon” and fixing what’s broken in our lives.
Thanks for reading! I’ll see you next Sunday.
Kevin