Consistency Conshmistency
Stop trying so hard
There’s a scene in the 2008 rom-com Forgetting Sarah Marshall, starring Paul Rudd and Jason Segel. Rudd’s character plays a surfer-dude, and he’s teaching Segel how to “pop up” (stand up from a prone position) on the board.
“Don’t do anything…Don’t do it. The less you do, the more you do,” he says.
After watching Segel “try” to pop up, he says,
“No, that’s not it…you’re doing too much…Remember, don’t do anything. Nothing.”
So Segel stays prone on the board. And Rudd says,
“Well, you gotta do more than that.”
Show up. Do the work. Put in the hours. Only people who work hard are lucky.
Pop up.
We live in a society built on the protestant work-ethic, and it’s hard to escape that sense of guilt if we’re not “doing”.
But what of rest? Rehabilitation? Repose? Retreat? Respite?
Pop down?
Isn’t that just doing nothing?
It seems like we can’t win.
Consistently trying is important, right? 1% better every day! Isn’t that the thing now? James Clear and all that? Forming better habits?
