Sometimes it is helpful to do nothing to achieve a goal.

Sometimes, to get to the intended goal, it is useful to retreat from the planned path and succumb to the will of the case. Strange as it may sound, the loss of time can sometimes be useful . Adam "Smiley" Posvolsky, author of the bestseller "How to overcome the crisis of a quarter of life," will tell us about it.

Recently, I have been struggling to come up with the theme of my third book. In fact, I have ideas - there are as many as eleven, only I am not sure which one is better. The topics are different: another career-building guide, a book about my grandmother, a passion for social networks, a discussion of the problem of acquaintances at the age of 30–40. I consulted with my friends, acquaintances, neighbors, what I should write about. I was very interested to know their opinion on the best topic for my book.
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Why am I so obsessed with figuring out what to do next? I think this is due to the desire to see a clear goal ahead. I am afraid that if I don’t have certain plans for the next year, the time will be wasted and I will not write anything. In my opinion, this is quite a concern for the writer.

However, sometimes, to get to the intended goal, it is useful to retreat from the planned path and succumb to the will of the case. Strange as it may sound, the loss of time can sometimes be useful.

Last week I was on the phone with Lindsay, one of my curators, about the idea for the book. Dialing her number, I thought to myself: “Thank God that I have Lindsay. She knows exactly what I need to write in the next book. She has all the answers, and she always knows what to do. ”

Instead, Lindsay told me:

Smiley, to be honest, all these ideas seem to me to be somewhat damp. I think that now it is very useful for you to relax a little and relax. Live in your pleasure. The idea of ​​a new book will definitely appear when the time comes

My first reaction was anger:

Relax?! Just live a normal life ?! What is this rubbish ?! I have to write the next book! I have to start writing it now. Now!

But then I took a deep breath, thought a little and realized that Lindsay was right. Everyone knows the state of love. When you are in love, love takes all your thoughts. When there is no love, you live on. And if you try to find love, you will hardly find it. Approximately the same with the writing of the book. You can't bring yourself to do it.

With my attempts to find a topic for a new book by all means, I limited my possibilities, and in pursuit of productivity I killed creative abilities.

Now I plan to do exactly what Lindsay advised — relax . Live your life and be open to new experiences, new ideas, new people, new adventures, new knowledge and new opportunities . For some time I decided not to make any effort, but to leave the usual way and see where it would lead me.

However, this does not mean at all that I will sit and wait for the magic light to come on in my head, signaling that the time has come to start a new book. Just the opposite. I will write without even knowing all the answers.

Adam "Smiley" Posvolsky is the author of the famous book The Quarter-Life Breakthrough , a guide for the generation of "players" to find interesting and serious work. His subsequent books will be published in 2016 by the Tarcher Perigee book publisher (Penguin "Random House").

PS We recommend another useful article on the topic of working on yourself - How to learn to control yourself and start living the life you dream about .

The author of the translation is Vyacheslav Davidenko, the founder of the TESTutor company.