The Magic of 20
Minutes
When people learn that I’m
writing a book about everything I’ve
ever
done that worked they are puzzled
and polite. I try to explain that
it’s not about
how to unblock the sink, more about
how to unblock themselves. If you
were
really stuck in a place you didn’t
like – a bad relationship, an
unfulfilling job, a
work crisis, a creative impasse, an
emotional loop – and something
in this book
got you unstuck and flowing, I would
call that a result.
When people hear this, they go a
bit quiet. Then they might say, ‘Have
you
got anything about being blocked?’
Or, ‘Have you got anything to
help creativity?’
Or, ‘My biggest problem is focus.’
Or, ‘I’m so overloaded,
I could cry at any
minute.’ To all of them I would
say, ‘Yes, I know a trick or
two that can help. Try
writing a letter to God, try the Emotional
Freedom Technique, try expressing
gratitude, even when you’re
feeling overwhelmed by fear. Try writing
it down.
Above all, try pulling focus. Get
very, very small. Get as small as
20 minutes.’
When I feel stuck or unfocused or
miserable, everything feels huge and
insurmountable. The problem I’m
blocked on seems overwhelming and
too big
to tackle. And what this makes me
feel is that I can’t, and don’t
want to do it at
all. My resistance is huge so I’ll
put it off till tomorrow, or some
time when I feel
like it. That’s what ‘procrastination’
means, by the way. Pro. Cras.
For Tomorrow.
And we all know when tomorrow comes
– never. Which is why the problem
doesn’t get solved, the focus
doesn’t get pulled, the great
creative breakthrough
doesn’t happen, ever.
What works is to do the smallest
possible thing you can contemplate
doing. Can you sit down and write
a symphony? No. Can you write a movement?
No. Could you write a few bars, 20
minutes’ worth? Could you sit
at your piano
or your music paper for 20 minutes,
undistracted by fear, self-criticism,
other
tasks? It’s only 20 minutes.
Yes, you could do that. And having
done that you
might find you could manage five minutes
more. And so on.
Never underestimate the power of
inertia. It takes far more energy
and
fuel for a plane to take off than
it does to cruise. Cruising is the
easy bit. That’s
why the kind of people who finish
projects have many ways to get themselves
onto the runway and taxiing off. Some
writers finish work in the middle
of a
sentence so that they can start again
the next morning. Some begin by writing
their own name over and over until
their hand and brain start to write
something
more interesting.
Above all, you have to stay where
you are. Artists go into their studios
and stay there, pottering, going through
the motions, until something clicks
in
and ideas begin to work. It might
take all day for an original idea
to happen, but
the action of turning up in the studio
or at the desk and staying there lets
your
unconscious know that you’re
serious. It’s like unblocking
a sink, after all.
Nothing happens and nothing happens,
but you keep trying and then, with
a
glug and a burp, things start moving.
And it’s the small things, the
increments
of 20 minutes, that can bring the
shift.
Journalism taught me that the breakthrough
often comes with the one
extra phone call you don’t feel
like making. You’re getting
nowhere and you
want to give up and then the last
question in the interview gives you
the extra
insight, the one great quote you’ve
been waiting for. Art training taught
me that
the creative solution or original
idea comes when you’re tired
and working, not
when you are planning a project from
the outside. Somehow, if you stick
with
the work, you reach a point where
your controlling mind let’s
go and a fresh
connection sparks. It often happens
when I say to myself, ‘I’ll
just do another
20 minutes.’
Whatever it is, you have to be there,
with your attention focused. Even,
let’s say, if you’re in
the biggest emotional mess and you
don’t know where to turn or
how to think, allow yourself to really
feel, really express, sob, howl, rage
for 20 minutes and you may find that
20 minutes will take you through to
a
temporary calm, a small clearing where
you can begin to think straight. And
after that, another 5, another 20...
It’s about leverage. Archimedes
said that if he had a place to stand
he
could move the world. In a tumultuous,
frustrating, intransigent world, 20
minutes
is our place to stand.
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