Hey, it’s summer! I hope you’re finding a bit of time and space to experience some summer goodness these days.
Last week, I posted about how Summertime is a great opportunity to experiment with the paradox of addition/subtraction.
This week, let’s look at another paradox—thinking/doing—and how this paradox is essential for good decision making.
Over the last few weeks in this series on decision making (and BTW, I think this is the last week on the theme…time to switch things up), we’ve looked a few times, at how thinking can be part of the problem.
Sometimes thinking is a covert way of dressing up avoidance and fear. Thinking about it, can be a way of not doing anything about it. After all, we can’t think our way forward.
Spiritual author Richard Rohr says something similar:
“We don't think ourselves into new ways of living. We live ourselves into new ways of thinking.” (I get the gist of this idea and sort of agree with it…but I think it’s only partially right. It’s one side of the thinking/doing paradox. Which is what the rest of this post is about.)
This is why we need a Bias to Action.
Action is crucial for us over-thinkers who get pulled into the ditch of analysis paralysis. It’s through trying and testing decisions, where we learn and grow.
And yet real change doesn’t occur on this level.
Change happens not by tinkering with behaviours, but by shifting beliefs. (This is the essence of the model of Triple Loop Learning—the theory that change occurs not merely through a change in action, but ultimately through transforming our underlying mental models and assumptions.)
This is the paradox: when we change our thinking, everything changes.
This is why we also need a Bias to Contemplation.
This is for us who tend to be reactive, who act first—think later, and who keep doing the same thing while expecting different results.
A Bias to Contemplation allows us to claim the power of the pause.
Reactive behaviour is just that— it’s re-active. It’s a recycling of actions, without ever pausing to ask: are these the actions? Are they productive, aligned, strategic, or remotely helpful? Are they yielding what I hoped?
Without a Bias to Contemplation we’re left stupider.
We’re driven by the impulses that override our best thinking. We’re left unaware of the reality that what’s actually running the show, may not be what we assume to be running the show. We’re caught in our own reactive loops.
Reactive Loops vs Reflective Spaces
The way out of being reactive is through becoming reflective.
Reactive Loops [recycled actions that produce more of the same or worse]
Reflective Space [a pause to encounter a different set of actions—namely inquiring, listening, and learning—which produce something different than what we’ve got]
We break our own reactive loops by inserting the power of the pause.
When we come up for air, step back, look closer, listen longer— we make better decisions.
We grow the reflective muscles needed to control our compulsions and limit where an unchecked Bias to Action could take us.
So, just as action produces information, we need a nuanced counter balance that says, reflection produces (informed) action.
We need gas and brakes.
We need exhales and inhales.
We need a Bias to Action and a Bias to Contemplation.
Quote
“Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.”
Viktor Frankl
Question
Where would practicing the power of the pause, produce the most benefit right now?
Poem
Let July Be July
Let July be July. Let August be August. And let yourself just be even in the uncertainty. You don’t have to fix everything. You don’t have solve everything. And you can still find peace and grow in the wild of changing things. Morgan Harper Nichols
Thanks for reading,
Lance Odegard
unstucking.co
Hi there! 👋 My name’s Lance - I’m a writer, coach, and learning designer from Vancouver BC, Canada. In this publication, you’ll find a growing archive of resources for those looking for creativity fuel to keep moving and making. Thanks for stopping by.
1+1+1 is a free weekly nudge, a creative spark, a shot in the arm to keep you moving. One quote, one question, one poem to get unstuck.
For more creativity fuel, get the full Unstucking experience by becoming a paid subscriber ($5 month), where you’ll receive my most personal writing—a monthly long form newsletter, additional content posts, and access to the full newsletter archive. Poetry, provocation, and practices for growing more curiosity + conversation + collaboration + creativity + change, in your world.
Both the quote and poem have been a longtime favourite ☺️🙏 Happy Monday!