Explore your depths

Today, Sascha published a new post on zettelkasten.de: “The Iceberg Theory of the Zettelkasten Method - Exploring the Depths”.

This post has the Zettelkasten method as its central topic. Still, the main idea of this post is universal: Sometimes, it is necessary to explore the depths of our lives to solve our superficial problems.

Sascha gives the case of one of his clients who could not lose weight (even though she had a good plan to do so) as an example. However, here is a personal example of mine :-)

Everything we do is inevitably connected in our lives. Lately, I’ve been having difficulties (which I didn’t have before) writing long texts. This is the «superficial problem» that I notice: “I find it difficult to write long texts.”

If I stay at this level of the problem, the solution would be to look for writing techniques and make a plan. However, I know those techniques and have a plan. So where is the problem?

I need to go deeper.

Why do I think it is more difficult for me to write long texts?

Because lately, I spend less time writing.

Why do I spend less time writing?

Because lately, I have had many more urgencies daily.

Why do I have so many urgencies?

Because I’m trying to leave Belgium to move to Spain, and that’s taking up a lot of my energy.

With this example, I want to show you that if I want to solve my superficial writing problem, I will most likely have to dig deeper into my life to find the real problem. (In fact, the move is most likely not the main problem because, despite that, I’ve been writing many notes lately, like the one you’re reading right now. So I still need to go deeper.)

We often need to explore our depths to solve our superficial problems.

I highly recommend that you read Sascha’s post :-)