Impulse drive
Winkletter • 29 Mar 2022 •
Why have I been having trouble keeping to a daily writing schedule? I may have found part of the answer thanks to the YouTube algorithm. I started watching Dr. Alok Kanojia (HealthyGamerGC) explain Why You Can’t Turn Your Creativity Into Anything.
The brain does what it is trained to do. When we’re watching YouTube or playing video games, we are training our brain to react impulsively to cues in order to gain rewards.
And even if we get a burst of energy and write every day for a month, we are still acting on impulse. After a month, the work gets hard again and another impulse pulls us in another direction. We think that the burst of energy was what we needed to start, and we just need maintain discipline in order to finish. But that burst of energy was part of the problem because we were still acting on impulse.
According to Dr. K, I need to train my impulsivity. I can meditate in order to teach my mind how to return again to focus. I should slow down my entry into the habits I want to build. I must decouple actions from reward.
And I should stop watching random videos on YouTube.
Comments
Yes, I resonate with this. I find that I can be creative, but only in response to someone’s need. If my wife needs something drawing or designing, I am on it in a flash and will do a great job. If I need a tool to complete something, I can code it. But if I sit in front of the blank page, waiting for inspiration to strike, it never comes.
I read/saw something once where the artist would force himself to draw an animal every day, the same animal - it might have been a Llama or something. Over time, even though he was drawing the same animal, they changed each day. They had different clothes, locations, expressions and were sometimes a reflection of what was going on in the world or the artists life. But the act of drawing that same animal allowed him to break that lack of impulse. It was an easy way for him to slip into creating, rather than sitting at the blank page.
Found it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M6NsEDwHHiE - it was an Ibis (bird) not a Llama 😊
@tao That makes me wonder if I could write about the same thing every day.
Oh never knew about this!