Improvised Journeys
One of the mindsets that I was unconsciously holding myself into and just recently realized is that any result we share is a Finished Artwork. From a speech prepared by a speaker, to a song composed by a classical musician, this mindset tells end results are ready to be seen by a wider public when we consider them finished.
There are few problems with the Finished Artwork mental model that can block us from evolving in whatever our Artwork is about. First, “finished” means “perfect” for many people, we either postpone delivering something or work way too much because isn’t perfect. That won’t work in the long run, we can’t sustain results that way for too long.
Second, by thinking in results we tend to skip midpoint checks to maybe get feedback or a simple update status, nurturing better connection to involved parties. Third, the Finished Artwork mindset doesn’t encourage us to share the creative journey to reach the end result. Mainly because we think of it as a sequence of mistakes that were corrected along the way. Exposing sequence of mistakes is psychologically painful so we avoid it. Although being vulnerable is uncomfortable, it boosts your growth by giving your peers a chance to more meaningfully connect with you and exchange experiences that matter.
What is then the alternative mental model to it? I believe there are several, the one I want to cover in this article I called: Improvised Journeys. This mental model affirms you are always improvising anyway, that’s how life progresses, and there is no finished work but improvised actions unfolding next episodes of our journeys.
The common way to think about improvisation is this on stage real-time performance with no previous rehearsal for few talented people. This way of thinking imposes an existence of a real-time (on stage) and a offline-time (when rehearsing). Another way to think about it is that we all perform in real-time, we might be alone or with other people, but there is just one real-time that is always happening.
There is also a common knowledge and many authors I’ve read saying mistakes are normal and we learn from them, which might be true and useful in other mental models. However the Improvised Journey mindset tells you mistakes don’t even exist and we probably created them using the Finished Artwork mindset. Rather, what exist is a journey of choices and happenings that lead to end result. We can still look at what we’ve done, judge the result and change it, but these are only more choices and happenings added to the journey.
Journeys are unique
The reason why I think journeys better represent life than results is that we can only add to a journey, we can never remove or edit a journey, we can’t go back in time and edit the history. On the other hand, removing and editing is exactly what we do in our artwork until it’s finished.
There are no two equal journeys, as there are no two equal life experiences, and there are no two equal people. You can reflect on similarities between journeys, and eventually you can judge they represent the same thing but they are two different journeys. One analogy is when two different psychedelic rock artists are writing songs, they are probably having similar experiences (if you know what I mean!) while writing songs, similar choices, but their journeys are definitely not the same.
Realizing our individual life journeys are unique is great! It’s one of the ways to see that we are indeed unique and special, unblocking us to be more authentic and fulfilled.
The Paradox of good results
In my experience good results generally comes from better journeys. It is paradoxical, but when we put our attention directly on results, we don’t necessarily end up with the best results in the long-run. Oppositely, by shifting our attention to journeys there is a higher chance of getting the best outcome.
There is a connection here with the Kaizen management principles. They also tell you to focus on continuously improving the processes (journeys) rather than products. There are validated long-term advantages of applying Kaizen principles in companies that I believe applies also to our journeys.
Therefore, another view of the Improvised Journey mindset is that if we don’t worry too much about the results, but rather focus on our little/big journeys, eventually we’ll get good sustainable results with all the other benefits mentioned.
Sharing journeys
Sharing Journeys makes you deal naturally with being vulnerable. Because we don’t think of mistakes, it’s easier to open up and share a full picture of our work as is, then getting more honest feedback from friends or workmates.
I’ve heard once a Software Engineer saying that “Every line of code has a history behind it.”, that’s true, and the full journey behind the lines of code can make you understand in much more depth the reasons why the code is in that shape. There might have been tight deadlines, different customer requirements, different engineering team background, team conflicts, overwhelmed engineers writing software and so on. There might have happened an entire different journey than the one we unconsciously assume when reading a line of code.
The same Software Engineering sentence apply to any work that produces a visible outcome. We can replace “line of code” by “line of text”, by “music note”, by “word spoken”, by “drop of brewed coffee”. We rarely get to know the full journey, but the point is to imagine how connected would you feel with it if you knew the full journey. On the flip side, how connected your friends or workmates would be if you share your little journeys? (Remember that boosts growth).
Improving Journeys
Another benefit, that ties to the long-term advantages, I can think of when shifting to Journeys is that improving Results is improving the current work status, improving journeys is improving our capability of doing the work (or whatever thing you want to call, not necessarily work).
Whenever you look back to the sequence of choices, actions and happenings of a journey and try to improve it, your future improved set of choices and actions would be a reflection of a “better you”, rather than a “better result”.
Conclusion
We will still be preparing presentations until we are satisfied with the result, we will still be drawing a picture until it’s finished. We will still write Software Code until it’s acceptable for customers. What changes with the Improvised Journey mental model is that our focus shifts from results to journeys, some of the benefits are:
- Sustainable results in the long-run.
- Better dealing with being vulnerable.
- Deeper inter-personal connections.
- Recognizing you and your experiences are indeed unique.
I hope the concepts introduced by the Improvised Journey help you along your journeys! Remember not to get too hooked into results, analyse and improve your journeys.
