The more we’ve become a modern, industrialized, artificially-lit world, and the farther we’ve gotten from our agricultural past, the more we’ve lost the sense of how little of life moves in a linear, always-on/always-off manner, and how much of it moves in cycles.
We experience cycles in our moods, our relationships, and our motivation and productivity.
The writer Madeleine Dore helpfully divides that latter area into two oscillating phases: sponge time and squeeze time.
During sponge time, we’re soaking up ideas. Gathering intel and insights. Pondering options. Sketching out visions.
During squeeze time, we’re executing our ideas. Creating. Taking action. Forwarding our own insights. Moving on things.
Each phase feeds the other. Each is essential in keeping the cycle of personal advancement turning round.
A problem arises, then, when we stay in one phase when we need to shift to the other.
There are times when we’re stuck in research mode, when we feel we still need to do just a little more planning, reading, thinking, and weighing before we can launch a project or make a decision. Yet, in reality, we have all the information we need to move forward; all that’s left to do is pull the trigger.
There are other times when we believe we must be ever productive — always generating ideas, always crackling with spiritual insights, always sure of what to do next with our lives. Being content to rest, to be still, to be porous and absorptive, seems too passive, almost lazy. Meanwhile, our attempts at continuous outputs face diminishing returns.
When it’s time to soak, soak; when it’s time to squeeze, squeeze.
If you never compress a fully saturated sponge, it will start to molder.
If you don’t stop to mop up some moisture, you’ll never have anything to wring out.
