How to succeed in swimming
The goal that betrays the process
Carla Needleman, writing of her experience as a craftsman, described a powerful paradox:
Our Attachment to Achievement
The attitude of the achiever is so fixed in us that we can scarcely envision a different way of our lives. The fact of our lives is uncertainty, and we crave certainty. The fact of our lives is change, movement; yet we long to “arrive.”
When Success Undermines Craft
I had come to realize that the solidly entrenched attitude toward results—“success”—poisoned all my efforts, and that I could not change it. I wanted to make beautiful pottery, and that desire, which is a kind of avarice, prevented me.
The need for success is a constrictive force. It bars us from immediate participation in the moment as it appears. It prevents the all-important conversation with the material of the craft. It prevents openness of relationship. It prevents a kind of quickness of response far swifter than the cautions of the mind. The need for success distorts pleasure.
Redefining Success
A new understanding of success and failure shifts the emphasis in work from the product—“getting there”—to the process itself. Focusing on the goal creates a kind of artificial certainty that distracts us from the possibilities inherent in our work and give us great anxiety.