the fastest way to find myself is to ....

Fourteen months into the pandemic, I was waylaid by a lassitude I couldn’t kick. I had it bad — I couldn't even stay inside a novel because my capacity for deep and sustained focus was gone. Then I read Adam Grant’s 4/19/21 NYT opinion piece, There’s a Name for the Blah You’re Feeling: It’s Called Languishing.

Yup. That’s it. That’s me, I thought.

• trouble concentrating
• somewhat joyless
• somewhat aimless
• stagnation
• dulled motivation
• dulled delight
• dwindled drive
• indifferent to my indifference
  
  

Grant outlined some antidote action against languishing which I took to heart, and still do — bring yourself to things that offer:

• a sense of mastery — so, think: making progress on something
• a sense of mindfulness — so, something that harnesses your full attention to focus on a single task
• a sense of mattering — (I love this one) do something that makes a difference to others

To get myself there, I went over to my work bench and fiddled with some paper, sticks, pens, glue, thread, and whatever else was laying around that day. Eventually, this is what I made. It has a lot of different names — fortune teller; chatterbox; coin-coin (in French) — whatever it’s called, here's the one I made as my gateway to getting out of languishing. 

It says: 
              the fast way to
                                          find myself is to

Then I answered my own question:
​              the fast way to
                                          find myself is to

For me, making something is a sure way out of a slump; to get myself out of languishing.

It might be different for you.

Try it out. Give it a whirl!

Make one for yourself. And then answer the question:
​              the fast way to
                                          find myself is to

Here's how it works.

​Take a square piece of paper and follow these folding instructions.

Once folded, word by word, write on each of the 8 triangular tabs pointing down:

     1 • the
     2 • fastest
     3 • way
     4 • to
     5 • find
     6 • myself
     7 • is
     8 • to


* you can use the photo below as a guide because the 8 words don't run in sequence

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Next, give some thought to how you would complete the statement. What does lead you back to yourself?

When you have your answer, open up the flaps and write it down on the inside.

You can make as many as you like. You might find that your answer changes. Mine do. Yet each one is true. I save mine. I set them atop tables and windowsills around my apartment as friendly reminders.

I’ve really taken this to heart. I keep this one – make something – on prominent view as a mindfulness touchpoint, to remind myself to notice how I’m feeling, and then, super helpfully, what I can do next. And you know what? It works every time.