I came across an article on Medium.com by Andy Murphy with 16 Strange but Beautiful Paradoxes in Life. I did find them beautiful and wanted to explore two of them a little deeper and add one of my own.
The Intuition Paradox
It just seems right. “We know more than we can tell” Polanyi’s paradox says that there is a phenomenon that things or tasks exist which human beings understand intuitively, but cannot verbalize the rules behind. Have you ever had an idea or a thought and then a few weeks later someone explains that very thought perfectly to you? Only you couldn’t quite put it into words yourself.
I was listening to a lecture about growth mindset recently and the speaker was giving an example of if you are having trouble making a decision and you are so focused on the decision in front of you, maybe you need to sit up and look out your window at the farthest thing away that you can see. If you can open your world up, the decision might seem more obvious. A couple days later I looked back on some notes in my phone and I had jotted something down about how a lot of my time in the office is spent staring out the window, because I often have to think big picture and make big decisions. My intuition was there-look in the distance and the answer will come, but I didn’t know why I was doing it until two years later when someone explained it to me. The beauty of this paradox is that it gives us permission to know without explaining and some innate strength behind our “it just seems right” feelings.
The Growth Paradox
If you have children you know this all too well. Suddenly you look at your child and they seem huge to you. Where did that baby go? You never saw it coming. Even though you knew it was coming. The growth paradox says that growth takes much longer than you think and then happens much faster than you would have thought. It happens gradually, then suddenly. If you are feeling a little stuck, maybe you are in that gradual phase of growth. Tomorrow could be the day you wake up and suddenly have blossomed.
I also think it is important not to judge yourself too harshly if you are feeling stuck. I think we all dream of a perfect version of ourselves – mine involves somehow remembering the name and at least one important detail about every single person I have ever met, having the confidence to walk into any room and strike up a brilliant & witty conversation and to create beautiful art. Yet, I go months without ever picking up a paint brush and I love to be at home….alone. What is in this space between who we are today and the image of ourselves that we think we want? I think there is growth for sure. There is space to improve and be a better version of myself. But there is also judgement. Judgement that I am not good enough, that no one wants to talk to me or finds me interesting. When I can let go of that I can find a lot more room to grow and a lot more peace about where I am today.
The Productivity Paradox
More and more studies have come out that show increased hours worked actually decreases employee productivity. This is really why the Ailyak philosophy speaks to us. I believe the practice of enjoying the process and slowing the pace will actually lead to more intentional and therefore more “productive” work. I also think there is a cultural obsession with being busy. My feeling is that when a person gets caught up in the busy cycle they feel like if they aren’t busy they aren’t important, or they aren’t accomplishing anything. But what is really happening in all that rushing around? Some of the most successful people I know are somehow always available. They can make any meeting time work, they always answer their phone and they play cards over a $4 lunch.
And the paradox within the paradox is that I think sometimes you do have to put in the extra hours because sometimes the work is there and just has to get done. Sometimes you really WANT to get it done because you are excited about it and you have a responsibility to it. However, that pace can’t be an all the time pace because it isn’t sustainable and because there is so so so much more out there than “producing.”
What does this have to do with travel? Kind of nothing, kind of everything! It’s paradoxical. Intuition, Growth and Productivity are all things we have to face when we travel or in order to travel. We have to confront our fears of lack of productivity to even get on the plane, find growth within ourselves when we get outside our comfort zones and intuition is with us always, guiding the way, the atlas of life.
