Divine Dissatisfaction
I have a confession to make- I’m a closet Deepak Chopra fan. I’m pretty cynical over a lot of the New Age stuff, but his logic cuts to the quick with me and I end up remembering his pearls of wisdom, quite unintended.
One phrase of his that sticks to my mind is Divine Dissatisfaction. And it’s a good one when thinking of how to build a successful blog. In the past, I have often gone quite potty in not understanding why, despite being somebody who would like to think of himself as “aware“, I can’t seem to ever sit back and just relax with a particular project. I can never say “job well done- that’s perfect.” Because it never is perfect. Resting on laurels just doesn’t ever feel right. So when Deepak articulated this in one of his books, it made me suddenly feel like I wasn’t some neurotic freak on his way to the asylum. Aaaah! It’s okay never to be quite satisfied….in fact….it’s recommended.
As Deepak recently wrote on the Intent Blog-:
Just as growing from infancy to adulthood radically shifts what you want from life, so does growing spiritually. Desire is always involved. The twists and turns of the detachment argument have worried generations of seekers, and still do. Nobody can adhere to all of these dicta, and since they often contradict each other, the result is conflict and confusion.
Desire....to make your blog as good as it possibly can be. Unlike static websites- blogs will not forgive neglect. Busy for a month and no time to post? Won’t do. Blogs need constant, tender care. Insomnia aside, what would be the driving force to make you go the extra mile? Greed? I doubt it- we’ve covered that one (I hope). Egocentrism? Maybe. What better motivating force could there possibly be than a thirst, ay a need, for perfection? And that this thirst is doomed to be forever unquenched, the need unfulfilled, the accomplished perfection to be elusive. But what great feats you will have accomplished on this frustrating path! In all aspects of your blog- content (break it down: grammar, spelling, interest…), design, technical and marketing- you are to be obsessively improving and improving and improving. Never satisfied.
How poetic is that!?
It does seem fitting to end with a quote from one of the greats, Robert Browning-:
“A man’s reach should exceed his grasp….”
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It’s no more and no less than the quest for art and beauty. I tend to follow the Platonic Ideal—the belief that there is a world of the forms, a world where things are perfect, and my forms are but pale imitiations of them. Sort of the same thing.
My oddity: when I first write something, I hate it. When I look at it months later, I can’t believe how good it is. But then, I’m not always blogging—creating art in time. My writing is usually more static than that.
salem said this on September 13, 2006 5:27 am