Aaah! Deadlines..! Don't you just love to hate them. What will happens to us if there were no deadlines! I had a very different outlook towards deadlines until recently, but its only when you sit idle for a month that you actually realize the importance of these unforgiving creatures.
For a moment , lets consider the word "Dead-Line". "DEAD" "LINE". They could have just said completion date or finish date but NO. It has to be deadline. That is how important it is. If you cross that line, you might as well hope that you were dead instead! May be that is why,Tom Robbins, the author of Half Asleep in Frog Pajamas said “Are you aware that rushing toward a goal is a sublimated death wish? It's no coincidence we call them 'deadlines.”
People have this very bad notion about deadlines. It wouldn't let me sleep, it gets closer and closer each moment, I cant even breath! Panic Panic Panic. Our whole lives are structured around submission dates, presentation dates, project completion date, review date, hell, even anniversaries and birthdays!
But the truth is that deadlines give you hope. It gives u stability in an otherwise chaotic existence. Without them , you have absolutely nothing to look forward to. You sit and think, "what do I have that is going to screw me over this week", you find an answer and you cry over it. But what if you have nothing in your schedule. Your to-do list look like the horizon, expanding to infinity. Your yesterdays and todays and tomorrows merge into one! Days have no meaning, weeks pass, months pass and you sit there wondering whether its a sunday or august!
Man wants order, so the sight of a deadline calms you down. I've got to survive for atleast till that date and then you encounter the next deadline and so on. Something always draws us to stability , to reason.May be that is the reason why the only thing that I admire about children is their ability to do unreasonable things with the greatest determination.
"Son, where are you going with my phone?"
"To the bathroom..."
"why?"
"to flush the phone down the toilet"
Their inherent sense of duty takes precedence over the need for rational things or for them to be in order, I wish adults could do the same sometimes.
Coming back to deadlines, deadline just gives you solace, nothing more. Its not that deadline inspires you to do something. Its like standing before a speeding car. "Oh I see a car coming towards me" "its big" "I think It will slow down" "Its getting closer and closer" "I think I should move out of its way" and then BANG, it hits you. And you get up crawling, living to fight another deadline.
So do all things have a deadline, a subtle invisible deadline? Do Dreams have a deadline? We often hear people say "when I was young, I wanted to do *something*. But now I'm too old" I guess dreams do have a certain expiration time, after which no matter how hard you try, it fails to materialize. Everyone carries with them a bundle of expired deadlines, those which no-one knows expect him and him alone.
Ultimately, all work needs inspiration and I agree deadlines are pretty de-motivational, but they are still better than absolutely no inspiration!!
For a moment , lets consider the word "Dead-Line". "DEAD" "LINE". They could have just said completion date or finish date but NO. It has to be deadline. That is how important it is. If you cross that line, you might as well hope that you were dead instead! May be that is why,Tom Robbins, the author of Half Asleep in Frog Pajamas said “Are you aware that rushing toward a goal is a sublimated death wish? It's no coincidence we call them 'deadlines.”
People have this very bad notion about deadlines. It wouldn't let me sleep, it gets closer and closer each moment, I cant even breath! Panic Panic Panic. Our whole lives are structured around submission dates, presentation dates, project completion date, review date, hell, even anniversaries and birthdays!
But the truth is that deadlines give you hope. It gives u stability in an otherwise chaotic existence. Without them , you have absolutely nothing to look forward to. You sit and think, "what do I have that is going to screw me over this week", you find an answer and you cry over it. But what if you have nothing in your schedule. Your to-do list look like the horizon, expanding to infinity. Your yesterdays and todays and tomorrows merge into one! Days have no meaning, weeks pass, months pass and you sit there wondering whether its a sunday or august!
Man wants order, so the sight of a deadline calms you down. I've got to survive for atleast till that date and then you encounter the next deadline and so on. Something always draws us to stability , to reason.May be that is the reason why the only thing that I admire about children is their ability to do unreasonable things with the greatest determination.
"Son, where are you going with my phone?"
"To the bathroom..."
"why?"
"to flush the phone down the toilet"
Their inherent sense of duty takes precedence over the need for rational things or for them to be in order, I wish adults could do the same sometimes.
Coming back to deadlines, deadline just gives you solace, nothing more. Its not that deadline inspires you to do something. Its like standing before a speeding car. "Oh I see a car coming towards me" "its big" "I think It will slow down" "Its getting closer and closer" "I think I should move out of its way" and then BANG, it hits you. And you get up crawling, living to fight another deadline.
So do all things have a deadline, a subtle invisible deadline? Do Dreams have a deadline? We often hear people say "when I was young, I wanted to do *something*. But now I'm too old" I guess dreams do have a certain expiration time, after which no matter how hard you try, it fails to materialize. Everyone carries with them a bundle of expired deadlines, those which no-one knows expect him and him alone.
Ultimately, all work needs inspiration and I agree deadlines are pretty de-motivational, but they are still better than absolutely no inspiration!!
A post that's exactly relevant with the situation we are in now...atleast me!!!
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