« Say what you mean | Main | Is health care changing? »
July 06, 2005
Relieving an itch or creative closure?
Read an interesting couple of pages sent to me by a GTDer in our network from Leon Salzman's Treatment of the Obsessive Personality about obsessive researchers vs those who seek information out of their love of the topic. The former collects and catalogs data to try to unsuccessfully relieve an eternal itch to reach perfection, which is never achieved. The latter "is motivated more by the pleasure in his adventures than by the decrease in anxiety."
Interesting similarity with the juxtaposition of getting organized from a compulsive (and unproductive) framework vs. creating structure for the freedom it produces.
[Thanks to a friend in our network, Bob Beverley (Associate Director of the Northeast Counseling Center of Pleasantville, NY), who has sent me some great stuff - "superb articles or gems hidden in long books," his self-described (and accurate so far) contributions to my reading.]
Posted by David at July 6, 2005 08:49 PM
Comments
Interesting observation, though I wonder how one goes about assessing ones own vulnerability to using organizational methods as a framework for our compulsions?
I'd like to think that I'm "Getting Things Done" and not just making lists because I feel compelled to do so.
Posted by: John at July 6, 2005 11:41 PM
I've been in both situations.
The first situation was the result of wanting to desperately get out of a certain life situation. Out of anxiety, I felt that "getting things done faster," "learning faster", and even getting much better at GTD as fast as possible would relieve the unwanted situation as soon as possible. All it did was make things worse. The solution was to let go and let nature take its course. I've seen a lot of posts from GTDers in forums that reflect this state of this anxiety.
Letting go resulted in shifting back to a state of "relaxed control."
Posted by: Tarek N at July 13, 2005 12:54 PM
