Read time: 5 minutes
Make Room for New Possibilities
“You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.”
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― Buckminster Fuller
đź’ˇ Goal: Actively deconstruct old habits to create new pathways.
Why It Matters
Creating freely demands that you are constantly open to change, but change is about more than just learning; it's about unlearning.
The same way your body clears out the old cells to make way the new ones, you must clear out the old habits and behaviors that no longer serve you to make way for new ones.
The Resistor
Are Your Habits Holding You Back? 🤔
Did you know that almost half of your daily actions are driven by habits?
Some of these habits might be quietly holding you back. Often, it’s not the unwillingness to change but the simple invisibility of these habits that keep them deeply rooted.
A Signal Path
The Soundless Era
Sometimes unlearning is forced upon you. Consider an extreme example.
In 1798 when the Composer Ludwig van Beethoven was around 28, he started losing the ability to hear. By the time he was 45, he couldn't hear at all.
He couldn't hear people talking or many of the sounds from the countryside that he loved.
He couldn’t hear music.
At first, Beethoven just heard some ringing in his ears. He wasn’t worried, but it got worse. The sounds around him started to get fuzzy and quiet. Playing music didn't feel the same anymore.
In his will he told the story of how hard it had been.
“…how could I possibly admit an infirmity in the one sense which should have been more perfect in me than in others, a sense which I once possessed in highest perfection…”
Beethoven tried lots of different ways to fix his hearing. He even tried some strange treatments, like putting tree bark on his body, hoping it would draw out the sickness. Nothing worked.
As his hearing got worse, it was harder for him to understand people in normal conversation and participate in public life.
When Beethoven was 45, he lost his hearing completely. He stopped performing and going to public events. He only let a few close friends visit him, and they would talk by writing notes to each other. Over time, he became a very private person who kept to himself.
As a musician, hearing is a critical sense, but Beethoven made the choice to unlearn his reliance on it. He continued to compose music even though he could no longer perform because he felt called to continue.
“…what a humiliation when one stood beside me and heard a flute in the distance and I heard nothing or someone heard the shepherd singing and again I heard nothing, such incidents brought me to the verge of despair, but little more and I would have put an end to my life—only art it was that withheld me, ah it seemed impossible to leave the world until I had produced all that I felt called upon to produce, and so I endured this wretched existence…”
He adapted his methods of composition to continue creating music despite his deafness, producing some of his greatest works during this period, including the iconic Ninth Symphony.
His ability to unlearn and adapt under such circumstances is a testament to human resilience and the drive to create.
Three Cats
âś… Idea: Nothing new comes from mirrors
“The bird that would soar above the level plain of tradition and prejudice must have strong wings.”
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― Kate Chopin
🔺 Process: Grow in all directions
“We do not grow absolutely, chronologically. We grow sometimes in one dimension, and not in another; unevenly. We grow partially. We are relative. We are mature in one realm, childish in another. The past, present, and future mingle and pull us backward, forward, or fix us in the present. We are made up of layers, cells, constellations.”
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― Anais Nin
🔹 Result: Know the war will be within
“To have faith is to trust yourself to the water. When you swim you don't grab hold of the water, because if you do you will sink and drown. Instead you relax, and float.”
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― Alan Wilson Watts
Switch to Action
“It is not a daily increase, but a daily decrease. Hack away at the inessentials.”
― Bruce Lee
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Unlearn Fixed Ways of Thinking About Your Ability and Creative Work
Beethoven had to unlearn a reliance on hearing as the primary means of creating music. Stop relying on the same thoughts about your abilities and how you create.
Take 10 minutes today and think about how you can benefit from unlearning any fixed ideas about how your creative process should work.
Write down three examples of where you could change by unlearning.
Go Deeper
You can learn more about how to unlearn and change in Immunity To Change on Amazon. ​
Let your signal flow,
Kirk