Getting it in writing

I realize not everyone writes everything down the way I do. I don’t understand it, but I do realize it. I also realize not everyone analyzes stuff down to the subatomic level I do. Frankly, I suspect that’s a lot more comfortable. Except analyzing stuff, asking questions, is kinda fun. So, go figure.

But you don’t want to get stuck there, right? You don’t want to spend the rest of your life dreaming about climbing a mountain, only to die with sixty versions of your ideal scene (containing the “I climb mountains on holiday” intention), forty lists of what to pack and “get passport” on every to-do list for the past decade…and no travelogues of your own.

Writing it down doesn’t get it done. It does, however, help us create a picture to align with. It can help firm up our intention. It can make us feel so damned guilty that “get passport” is STILL on the to-do list (I do my to-do lists in Excel so I can easily prioritize and update them. Is that a sign of weakness?) that we either cross it off undone so we don’t have to look at it any more (consciousness!) or go get a picture and fill out the paperwork, no matter that we still have twenty pounds to lose and no money for an airline ticket to Nepal.

Writing it down doesn’t get it done, but it can goad us into action. Partly this is because we’re programmed to avoid cognitive dissonance, and creating a picture of what we want creates dissonance that we will try to resolve. And there are only two ways to resolve it: change, or pretend change isn’t necessary. (Cognitive dissonance often results in something like Douglas Adams’ “someone else’s problem field,” which is the idea that we will ignore really weird things if we don’t think we need to do something about them.)

So go ahead, write it down. Once. Review it as necessary—maybe once a year. Create new heights to aspire to, new views to admire. But then go out and do the things that need to be done. Writing it down won’t get them done. Only doing them will.