Blogging Redux - Gumptionology 101

Starting trouble. Whenever I sit down to write and speak directly there is an in-built deflection which seeks to present things in a convoluted manner. Direct speech? Nada. The intent is to be as obscure as possible. This in turn will fuel a condemnation of those who don't understand what I am writing about, which in turn will stoke the caustic sarcasm, which in turn will lead to frustration, which in turn will lead to disappointment and finally on to depression. But that's being buried. And if you've just joined me on this write, welcome!

What is this blog about. As the description blurb announces this corner of the blogoverse is attempting to break on through to the other side. An endeavor which was started by The Doors. But before we can get around to exploring that, it seems to me the first task at hand is a visit to Gumptionology 101. Gumptionology is one of those lost branches of knowledge relegated to the soup kitchen lines of motivational speakers peddling adrenaline pumped bonhomie. I am tempted to get carried away and say that 'Gumption is the thing'. It's not. But it is definitely a key ingredient in what makes life worth living. In other writings its been called Enthiasmous, Positive Thinking, Seven Habits (of highly successful people), etc etc etc. You get the picture. Strictly speaking though, the so called Seven Habits does not equate to gumption but rather are tools and techniques to achieve and maintain it. And as methods go the rule there is more than one way to do it, applies. IMHO Seven Habits is a real suck ass method. Popular sure, suck ass nevertheless.

Before I proceed any further and I forget that Gumptionology is NOT my idea and you end up thinking that it is, I want to acknowledge a debt of gratitude. The person who first talked about Gumptionology and which this post is trying to emulate is a person who has withdrawn from public life. His name is Robert Pirsig. He wrote the book Zen and The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. Aaaah, you say. Of course you've heard of it. But you've never gotten around to reading it. It's either there on your reading list or at the very least it's floating there in your culture noise, so you recognize it. It's a rare probability that you've read the book. Rarer still that you've understood all what he is talking about. ZMM and its sister Lila (both by RP) are among those few books embedded into the planetary zeitgeist. And they will not go away till we acknowledge them, bring them out into the open, earnestly discuss them, imbibe what has been propounded, investigate the anomalies in our mythos and act on the results of our investigations. That pair are among the loneliest books I've ever seen. And the most tenacious. More on this in another post.

Back to Gumptionology. Lack of gumption is what keeps you from doing a thing. Anything. Your thing. Gumption is what makes it possible. There are many reasons for this lack. It may be that you've inherited it through a gumptionless childhood, it may be that you're in a gumption draining environment or it maybe that you've hit a seemingly insurmountable problem and it's chipping away at your gumption. Whatever maybe the thing, the first step is to recognize your low gumption state. The direct physical manifestation of this could be things like depression, frustration, and/or irritability. Other symptoms are a certain dullness and sluggishness - you feel like the Titanic when you want to whirl your thoughts around on a dime, the distance between action and thought seem like light years. Freshness has gone and boredom seems to rule the roost.

Whatever maybe the reason and whatever be the symptom the first step is to arrest it. STOP. If you're on one of those 24-lane 300 km/h highways of life, move into the slow lane and pull into the nearest petrol bunk with an attached convenio. Pick up a coffee, a doughnut and sit on the hood of your car watching the traffic whizz by. Yes, I know it sucks for scenery but you gotta work with what you got. Of course lack of gumption is not exclusive to the high speed, iPodized, bluetooth enabled, RFID embedded, IPv6 tagged corporate bimbo. A person with a fairly together lifestyle can also get hit by it. Again, whatever your social label, the first thing to do is stop what you are doing and take a breather.

The next is to jack up the conscious awareness of where you are and what you are doing. Smell that coffee. Feel the heat seeping through the paper cup. Flick those sugar flakes clinging to your lips with the tip of your tounge. The hot coffee has desensitised your taste buds but you get the texture of the flakes anyway. The hood is warming your ass. All those cars rushing by is generating a backwash of air that makes a stray chewing gum wrapper spin in its own mini dust-devil...

You recognize this exercise? It's called getting in touch with yourself. Now say Hi. Give 'er a smile will ya. Hey beautiful. Missed you.

Depending on your temperament, the actual distance between you and yourself and the depth of the estrangement, the responses will be as varied as snowflake patterns. For example: Mine said, Bitch! I love you. There'd been a lot of water under the bridge between us and calling me bitch, given that I am guy, is symptomatic of the actual state of affairs.

Ok. We've done the touchy feely thing. You're on top of the world. You jump into your car, switch to manual and slam on the gas. You slide into the slow lane, begin accelerating, glance at the rear view and your mind effortlessly plots the trajectory for fast lane entry. Gear shift 3 to 4 to 5. Whrrooom! The old lady in the Scorpio 4WD you cut across doesnt even realize. You are 300m away and already in 6th gear when you see her face in the rear view change from placid to bug eyed in a delayed reaction. Hyuck! Hyuck! Horrification and bamboozlement mama! Aintcha seen the children burn rubber - you yell. Grinning. Top of the World.

The phone rings. Your boss is shitting pancakes. Delivery is due in a week and the entire team is feeling fried. The problem seems too big to solve in a week and you all are not even sure if its solveable. And then it happens. Your mind goes crystal clear. The solution matrix appears, almost magically. The entire thing. You're seeing it at 20,000 feet and your standing right in the center of it. Seeing every itsy bitsy corner of it. You are the observer and the solution. Awe fills you.

Where are you, the boss blurts.

Never you mind my sweetie, you reply cheerfully, patch in a team conf call now.

The car switches to auto and the wind screen opaques as the video cam windows begins appearing. Your mates plug in - yo wassup suck face, they say. And then in a clear calm voice brimming over with the chilled freshness of gumption you begin explaining the solution, the blind alleys you all have been hunting in, and the way out. The team perks up and all sorts of solutions begin popping out, intermeshing with your orignal seed idea. There is more than one way to do it. Everyone's gumption meter is rising. The boss slumps into his chair stunned, the team goes wild, we got the fucker licked! they whoop, and you, grinning, click off the comms...Top of the World.

Fade to Black.

Pretty huh? Well, real life may not be as dramatic but that's what being full of gumption does. Gets you on top of things. There are very few unsolvable problems when you're full of it. The right kind of it. And the ones which aren't being solved are because of the lack of the right tools. Get the tools. Lack of correct tools, misunderstanding the context of the problem, being over anxious to solve the problem are all gumption drainers. You should read ZMM if you want to know more about those. Chapter 24 or thereabouts. You can read the entire book online. Start here , though it is still easier getting a hard copy which you can carry around with you.

Let's back to the story...

The car swings into the office entrance and you are out running. You slap high fives with a vaguely known colleague and sprint for the elevator. That's when you see him. HIM! That asshole from Admin. You've tangled with him before and he pulled rank on you even when you both KNEW you were right. Sonofaegopumpin....and you can feel all that gumption just draining away.

Whoa! Whoa! WHOA! Stop right there fella!

I really hate that guy. Such a frickin neanderthal. What was he doin in social studies? Counting the hair on his balls?

What was that thing about conscious awareness we discussed? Be aware of where you are and what you are doing. If gumption starts draining away. STOP.

But I gotta get back to my machine. The code is calling and the week is fast disappearing.

Yeah. And you sit down to work without gumption and you're back to numnut 101. Take a detour. Walk. Get back your gumption. If you are constantly in the stream of gumption draining encounters get out of there. Worse, if you constantly indulge in gumption draining activity - sometimes you do things you hate and then you beat yourself silly over it - like obsessively pickin on a scab, you are setting yourself up for a long haul. Don't. Dig out the motivational levers thats triggering the gumption beating activity and either repair them or throw them out and replace them with something that actually fits you.

Maintenance. That's where it's at. Of a motorcycle called yourself.