“We all hope for breakthrough rebirth moments.” Dane Cook
Struggle is necessary for growth, both linear and radical.
If you look at what it takes to reach the Flow State of unconscious outperformance per Rian Doris (of the Flow Research Collective) there are four steps in reaching this ultrahigh performance state:
- Struggle
- Release
- Flow
- Recovery
Being in a situation just beyond your capability, being a little out of control because things are coming too fast and you can’t quite handle it is the necessary position to then have things click and suddenly be in that Zen state of performance without thought, creation without interruption as the work carries you instead of you doing the work.
Without the struggle we cannot push beyond our limits to greatness, whether it is the basketball player sinking a dozen shots in a row or the composer seemingly channeling the angels as they furiously scribble. We pray for a Muse to inspire us, that seed that crystallizes our endless hours of effort in a timeless instant of creation that nucleates and initiates the formation of something beautiful.
It is all the work before the overwhelming moment that we fear yet require, the excessive amount of material or thoughts or demands that push us beyond the limit of capability, that almost break us before we explode with productivity. The overnight success took decades to get there. Thousands of hours, tens of thousands of thoughts, countless moments that interact and fight and crash until in an instant they align. Without the process of adding the material and the pressure and stressful conditions, the environment cannot create the beautiful work that is talked about and admired afterwards.
We pray for that moment of beauty and creation, but we earn it with the labors and sacrifices beforehand.