You Can’t Fight Your Way

May 16

You can’t fight your way out of a fighting problem.

Worst of all, if you really want to stop taking swings at things, you’ll have to find a better metaphor for what is happening, with better analogies. No more “punching up”. No more “hanging in there”. No more “going until the final bell.” The analogy doesn’t change the situation, but it dictates what you expect to find, what you’re looking for, which you’re almost certain to find.

So if you need to stop fighting, the first step is to stop fighting fighting and start finding a new way to look at the problem.

Writers block, addictive personalities, short fuses, “I’m just not a math person”—are they all just analogies? Ways of seeing the world that, while sometimes helpful, are actually changing what we see? Pushing us into familiar stories?

Is it possible to see the world without these analogies? Is it even desirable to do so? Are there some freedoms that really are just a thought away, waiting in the wings, ready to be taken on the second something else is cast off?

Morning Reading is a daily email to help center yourself, reflect, and prepare for the day. It’s sent with love from your friend, Zach in Austin, Texas. He even drew the logo himself.

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