People are afraid they will lose their edge

My friend likes to joke with me that inside her head, she actually sounds organized.

Meanwhile, the desktop of her computer looks like a field of golf balls at the driving range, and her inbox has thousands of unread messages from more than two years ago.

This reinforces my theory that some people are disorganized because of ego. They believe the left brain path of organization is at odds with the right brain path of freedom.

And since it’s been so successful for them thus far, they shame themselves out of being meticulous because they think it will kill their creative urge and ruin their street credibility. They will lose their edge.

Have you ever met someone like this? Suspicious of anything that looks or sounds systematized? Superstitious about their precious clutter because they think it brings them good luck?

It’s not charming, it’s ego.

Here’s the thing. Just because one habit has been heroic in the past doesn’t mean it will be helpful in the future. In fact, it might be preventing us from working effectively.

Gross says it best in my favorite book about reinvention. She explains that we all have this thing called our winning strategy, which is our lifelong, unconscious formula for achieving success. We did not design it, it designed us. It may be the source of our success, but it’s also the source of our limitations. And if we’re too reliant on it, we won’t evolve.

Which brings us back to my disorganized friend. She’s not going to clear her desktop, and she’s not going to purge her inbox, because that’s her winning strategy. It’s just useful enough not to be a threat. It’s just true enough not to be a lie.

Naturally, my biased opinion is that everyone needs to become less of a spontaneous phenomenon and more of an organized system. Hell, I built an entire software platform called Prolific, with 300+ tools to do just that.

I believe everyone needs to turn fragmented chaos into more coherent structures, if only to make life less stressful.

LET ME ASK YA THIS…
What new habit would feel radically disruptive and contrary to how you’ve organized yourself?