Man eats seven inch knife because he felt like it

Not feeling like doing something may be emotionally true, but it’s tactically irrelevant.

If your most frequent reason for not producing creative work is because you’re not in the mood, then you’re setting yourself for a dissatisfying career.

One habit prolific creators have in common is their ability to discipline themselves to do work they don’t feel like doing. Every day.

Because let’s be honest for a minute here, nobody really wants to do anything. Hell, I don’t even want to be writing this essay right now. I’d rather be watching spy thrillers, eating cheese popcorn and scratching my private parts. And so, we all make sacrifices for our art.

Seinfeld did his classic absurdist bit about this in a recent standup special. He told the audience:

Nobody wants to be anywhere, nobody likes anything. We’re cranky, we’re irritable, and we’re dealing with it by constantly changing locations. And so, we come up with things like this comedy show, what we’re doing right now. This is a bogus, hyped up, not necessary special event. That’s what this is. A lot of people worked very hard to put together so that we could all just kill some time.

Jerry’s punchline is as funny as it is functional. Each creator has to get in touch with something called motivational economics. That’s where you either shift your relationship with pain, or shift your definition of gain.

For example, if you have a low tolerance for discomfort, see if you can introduce a micro practice throughout your day to raise it. Intentionally put yourself in a worst case scenario, like turning off your phone during your commute, skipping a meal, wearing pants that are too tight, sending an unflattering picture of yourself to your partner, or working for an hour without wifi.

By exposing yourself to negative situations, and realizing that the condition you so feared isn’t so bad, your discomfort tolerance will grow. You’ll paint a picture that allows you to view your pain more positively. And the specter of doing things you don’t want to do won’t knock you out of the game.

Seneca says it best in his letter to stoic:

Each day acquire something that will fortify you against poverty, against death, indeed against other misfortunes. It is precisely in times of immunity from care that the soul should toughen itself beforehand for occasions of greater stress.

This whole thing about motivational economics reminds me of a recent news story that made me laugh and cry at the same time. Here’s the headline:

Man eats seven inch knife because he felt like it, doctors remove it in rare liver surgery.

Apparently he told the doctors he was in the kitchen during the coronavirus quarantine, and felt like eating a knife. He first tried to chew it and finally gulped it down with water, bizarrely swallowed it in a fit of cannabis induced psychosis.

The doctors said they were perplexed as to how the young man gulped down the saw edged knife without any damage being caused to his wind pipe, lungs, heart or other vital organs. The knife could have easily perforated the esophagus and gone in to the trachea, heart or big vessels, on its journey from mouth to liver, remarked the doctors.

Regardless, the surgical team ultimately removed the knife without significant injury. Within a day, the patient was able to walk around. At which time he was immediately ordered for psychiatric counseling.

Insane as this story may be, it’s a reminder of the irrelevance of feelings when it comes to the creative process.

Yes, it’s important to notice, name and express our feelings when appropriate. But just because we feel like eating a knife, doesn’t mean we should.

And conversely, just because we don’t feel like doing our work, doesn’t mean we shouldn’t.

Motivation is a complex thing, and each one of us has our own economy to contend with on an hourly basis.

The secret is not letting our emotions like desire and apathy outshine our need to take action.

How disciplined are you with doing things you don’t feel like doing?