May 13 2008
A Lesson from the Time Traveller
For one of my 101 Things, I have to read three literary classics. I’m currently reading The Time Machine by H.G. Wells, and it just prompted a jarring realization. (If you haven’t read it and don’t want the ending spoiled, don’t click the hyperlink in the previous sentence. And don’t worry–I won’t give away any more than I have to in this post.)
If you’re not familiar with the book, I’ll give enough background for this post to make sense. An amateur inventor creates a time machine and takes a trip to the future. Humans have apparently evolved into small, frail, androgynous creatures (called the Eloi) who live a peaceful, leisurely existence. These creatures are childlike–they lack intelligence, curiosity, and creativity. The Time Traveller (he is never named) develops a theory as to why humans seem to have mentally devolved instead of advanced:
What, unless biological science is a mass of errors, is the cause of human intelligence and vigor? Hardship and freedom: conditions under which the active, strong, and subtle survive and the weaker go to the wall… [In the Time Traveller’s own time, h]umanity had been strong, energetic, and intelligent, and had used all its abundant vitality to alter the conditions under which it lived… Under the new conditions of perfect comfort and security, that restless energy that with us is strength [had] become weakness.
So the Time Traveller is saying that the reason that modern humans are intelligent, strong, inventive, and adaptable is that we have to be in order to improve our lives. We use technology, politics, art, science, philosophy, agriculture, etc. to alter our world and enable us to thrive. The Time Traveller postulates that, once humanity had achieved the pinnacle of technological advancement and social development, there was no further need for smart, creative, hardy humans, so they became soft and weak.
Makes sense, right? What’s so earth-shattering about that? Let me try to explain. Lately, I’ve been struggling with my writing. I find it too taxing after a long day of performing mental gymnastics at work to come home and be creative. Sounds reasonable enough.
BUT when I got out of the Navy at 22, I was waaaaay in debt from bad decisions and a messy divorce, I was uneducated (high school diploma), and I was really depressed. I refused to take money from my parents, so it was up to me to make my own way. I worked THREE jobs–a legal secretary during the day, a cocktail waitress at night, and a salesgirl on Saturdays & Sundays–to make ends meet. I ate peanut butter for weeks at a time. I worked my ass off (literally–I lost about 20 pounds in 2 months) and started taking classes at community college. How did I manage to do all that? I had no choice–that’s how.
After I got my Bachelor’s, I knew I wanted to go to grad school. I didn’t want to take out as many student loans as I had for undergrad, so I wanted to work full-time. I wanted to finish in two years, so I had to go to school full-time. So I worked 45 hours a week at a government agency, worked at a coffee shop on the weekends, and took a full load of classes. For two miserable years. Why? Because I had to.
Now, I’m totally financially secure (thanks mostly to my husband). I have a very comfortable life, and I don’t have to struggle for anything. I can pretty much have whatever I want with a minimum of effort (outside of the effort of working full-time). Much like Wells’ Eloi, comfort and security seem to have dulled my edge. I’ve lost the willingness to strive. Does that make sense? Achieving success has diminished some of the very qualities that made me successful.
I’m asking for your help now. What can I do to change this? How (short of quitting my job, which my husband and I agreed I won’t do right now) can I create an environment that requires enough struggle to inspire me to give my all without throwing away everything I’ve worked for?
Have you noticed this in your life? How do you combat the complacency that comes with success?
it’s such a simple answer but mine is twofold:
constantly nudging the bar a bit higher when I get close (with my writing)—-like I recall doing when I taught swimming to little kids and they were finally GETTING IT…Id move ever slightly back so theyd keep swimming and do more than they ever dreamed they could.
and I wanna leave a mark.
no matter how tiny.
that keeps me motivated to find success in new and different arenas in an effort to make a small impact on the greater world (if I can) with the time I have left.
love your writing.
I feel you, I have become complacent (well more comfortable in being insecure and not going out of my box).
I personally break things into mini goals since I’m such a goal oriented person (it’s a hinderance, sometimes).
My line of reasoning these days is to work towards the thing that I’m most afraid of.
Maybe, look at a month time span and set out one particular thing you want to accomplish with your writing for that month and reward yourself with something when you finish it!
Well, how about thinking about it this way:
You can’t quit your job until your writing career gets off it’s feet. Your goal is to write your way out of a job. You fought long and hard to get your education, presumably to get a good job. The next step for folks in your position is to rise above the rest of us worker bees.
What an interesting look perspective..I had never thought of it like that. I wish I had a better response as to how I deal with complacency, but the only thing that I’ve found is change.
I tend to get complacent when it becomes ‘old hat’ and I start to feel as if I am in a rut, then I no longer enjoy what I was doing and don’t strive to get better. If, however I am able to change it up a bit (i.e. run in a new location/learn a different subject that is still relevant/attack a computer problem from another view point (security rather than software)) then it becomes fresh and new and I feel as if I am growing and learning therefore I want to continue.
In your case that might be rather than be creative on a specific topic for your novel you could be creative on a topic within your novel or just do some creative writing on any topic…see where it leads you, you never know what lies ahead…..
~K
I am in the seat right next to you on this ride. Some of it is just feeling plain old tired. I’ve worked so hard and struggled for so long that now that I don’t actually have to do that to survive, the motivation sort of deflates.
But, what I do want, I want so deeply, so why am I not struggling and working for it like I have done for what I already have now?
When you figure it out, let me know. I didn’t have words for it until just now, so that’s at least a start. Thanks again! You’re always there to put a label to an issue. Good for me that we have so many similar issues!
What an eye opener! My parents couldn’t afford to put my brother and I through college and back then, they didn’t offer grants because of high scores. I didn’t want to take out student loans, so I worked full time at night, taught piano to 5 students and did substitute teaching whenever I could. I used to study through the night and take power naps.
When I look back on it, I think, “I was younger and had that type of energy.”
But really, it’s the need. Never thought of it before.
So, you want to know how to fix this? Create a NEED. Something powerful for you that is a driving force. What do you REALLY want? Make it a tough goal!
As a military spouse and mom of four kids I get both the complacency and the changes. The changes come from my kids and their constant need for more, very active life and of course the obvious, they are growing and changing personalities everyday. Also the frequent moves throughout the world. The complacency is more what happens in my life everyday–you know, get up, do some chores, get the kids off to school, work, study, dinner time, do it again tomorrow. After a while that can get old.
I need change and crave change–can’t settle for “I’ve reached my goal” because my goal is to always have a goal. I take online classes that challenge me, currently classes that meet the requirements towards a degree, I continue to educate myself in different fitness fields, I set up projects that will keep me challenged and involved. When I get close to reaching my goal I already have another goal in mind, something else to keep me going and to keep life interesting.
You have worked so hard to get to where you are, now it’s time to work hard to reach new heights. Good Luck.
I’m in the seat behind you going through the same thing. I have struggled a lot and finally things become easier and all of a sudden my motivation to write is gone as well.
I found out that I used writing to get away from my problems. They were a way to flee and to forget for a while. Now I don’t need no way out anymore so my “vehicle” is useless. At the same time I just love to write. It makes me happy and it is my major way to express myself.
So my task now is to remember what it does for me. To stop thinking and just do what I love so much. I make it way too difficult for myself sometimes and then I end up thinking all day and not write one word. Writing is almost meditative for me. So I’ve decided to put my novel to the side for a while and focus on my weblog and articles for my website (they’re in dutch so no use to put them here I guess). Just to get the juices flowing again and to move from fleeing into ‘beeing’