The bar is low
Whatever you thought the bar was, it is even lower than that. In fact I think for most things, it should be.
I will talk about this in various contexts of our lives, however you should see its broader applications. Let's say that you want to be an artist. What is the bar you should aim for?
Here are some responses I have told myself:
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You need to have a gallery showing
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You need to have an instagram (insert social media of choice) following
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You need to draw or paint every day
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Some certifying authority needs to tell you
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You need to have a degree
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You need to get a paying job as an artist in an industry (for me this was animation/ comics/ illustration)
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You need to sell your art
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You need to be accepted into an artist community (local or online)
But these are all false. These don't make you an artist. In fact, there is a common ideological failing at display in these examples. They mainly focus on the results. Most have aspects that we cannot act on.
In other words, we have abstracted the concept of an artist. It has changed from a doing thing to a being thing. Abstractions are many things. In computer languages, programs, and mathematics they are very helpful. When it comes to one's ability to act and change, not as much.
So, you might be asking, if these don't make you an artist, what does? Make ANY art It sounds simple. It is.
The reception of the piece is irrelevant. The quality of the piece is also irrelevant. You cannot affect that with any meaningful immediacy. By this, I mean, you cannot will yourself to draw like Durer. No matter what equipment you buy, what book you read, or how much you think about it, these will not get you there. It turns out, the low bar might actually be the quickest path to improvement.
Well, duh, you might say. Of course, you'll improve if you do the thing more. It sounds obvious, I know. And yet, there was an unsettling feeling that I was cheating. After all, isn't it too easy to have such a low bar? Shouldn't we have to struggle for our growths?
I felt this way about meditation as well. I had abstracted meditation to a point of a fleeting fantasy. But before I get to that, I want to introduce you to Jerry.
From the day he's been born, Jerry's only job is to conduct the sheet music that is given to him. He does not know (or care) where they come from. Sometimes the music is well received! The audience roars in approbation. Other pieces leave them in tears and frustration. Despite it all, Jerry continues to conduct the music in front of him.
It has been decades. Jerry thinks he's a pro. In fact, when the audience is not paying attention, he'll bring out the greatest hits and start playing sheets from the past. He thinks he is so good that sometimes, it turns out, he sometimes tries to predict what the next sheet will be. He's often wrong, but sometimes he isn't! And that bolsters his confidence.
Even when Jerry's boss tells him to only play the music he has, Jerry can't help but look a few notes or pages ahead. Especially when there's a music piece that alludes to an epic in the future, he can't help but get excited. So excited, that he messes up the current piece. Oh no, Jerry, what are you doing? His boss doesn't like that.
Jerry is a little conductor, ahem maestro, in my head. You have one too. Maybe it's not Jerry, but a Jack, Penny, or Gustaf. But the conductor is there.
When Jerry sees an abstraction in the future, he doesn't know what to think! He makes stuff up. The sheet music hasn't arrived, it's just a vague indication of what it "could be".
When Jerry heard of Meditation, his little conductor instincts pumped into action. He had an idea of what mediators did and how they behaved. And off he went.
When I sat down to meditate, Jerry was already impatient and wanting to get to the good stuff! The epics. He wanted to skip to the part where I already was one. Of course he doesn't know what it entails, so he just made it up.
And I got increasingly frustrated. No amount of meditation made me feel mindful or successful. Because Jerry had a wobbly idea of what it meant. In fact, each time I sat to meditate- Jerry was already thinking of the next breath, or the next "focused moment". Even in these minute situations, Jerry was impatient. Masterful execution of the subtle illusion of immediate futures let Jerry flex his future-sight, while keeping the boss off his back.
Doing this is frustrating to both Jerry and the Boss, the Boss doesn't get what he wants, and Jerry gets exhausted.
We only arrive at the low bar once we deconstruct the abstractions. Even though it requires less effort, it feels like more work. It requires us to accept our locus of control.
And with meditation, it was just to notice my breath. Not control it, not predict it, just notice it. That is the low bar. There was no perfect sitting position, or time. No books or trainings to buy. It is likely that as you do the low-bar efforts, your definition of what low-bar efforts are will change. You'll gain enough XP, and like you, the low-bar effort activity will also level up.
As I write this, the concepts of Entity theory and Incremental Theory come to mind; the two are colloquially referred to as the fixed mindset and growth mindset. This, however, is independent of the two. Although the argument could be made that someone with a fixed mindset would not entertain processes that would lead to self improvement.
In order to adopt a low bar model of effort, we need to dispose of our "top down goal" mental model. In my previous examples, growth becomes stilted if we start from a top down understanding of what it means to become a thing. The top down model naturally leads us to start from a noun. As shown above, this adds unnecessary complications by way of abstractions on what it means to be the noun. A "bottom-up" mental model of growth and goals asks us to contemplate on what the seemingly insignificant minor activities (SIMA) we can take; in other words, the low-bar task. This requires more up front effort, as it asks of us to recognize our locus of control and our limits. SIMAs should be so small, that it may even feel silly. It should strip your goal of any external abstractions and result in a distilled minor activity.
Dan Harris has a saying he repeats often, and for good reason, "Action absorbs anxiety". This strikes especially true when we consider the bottom-up mental model. As I recognize and act on more SIMAs in my life, I find that there is no room for anxious thoughts anymore. The SIMA could just be as simple as to take a few intentional diaphragmatic breaths, and for me it often is.
In his new book "Secure" Dr. Amir Levine, Professor at Columbia University and Psychiatrist, coins the term SIMIs (seemingly insignificant minor interactions) to assert the importance of our daily interactions with others in relation to our brain development. SIMAs have the same relation towards our goals and ambitions.