It’s time.
It’s time to share with you The Alchemist Papers, written by someone who has taught me more about life, business and yes, myself, than anyone else: The Alchemist Entrepreneur.
“Al” for short.
How and when I came to know Al is a story for another time. I do need to warn you that even though Al is alive and well in the age of the iPad, he likes to write as if he were a delegate to the Constitutional Convention.
His style is dated. His sentences run on. And he writes these essays with a fountain pen on handmade paper. But these essays penetrate to the very core of what matters. While everyone is hacking at the leaves, Al strikes at the root. I’m a grateful student, and it’s time to share. I urge you to read through to the very end.
– Dov Gordon
The Alchemist Papers
1: The Crisis at Which We Are Arrived.
It seems to have been reserved for you and me, the Alchemist Entrepreneurs, by our conduct and example, to answer the important question: Whether men are really capable or not, of rising above the many pressures and stresses that tug us this way and that, and leave us feeling endlessly behind, forever inadequate to the tasks and duties at hand.
Are we in truth capable of designing and constructing good lives for ourselves and our families, from reflection, choice and right action, or are we forever destined to depend on accident and force and consent to being tossed hither and yon by elements beyond our control?
The crisis, at which we are arrived in our time, wherein gadgetry; even whilst it has reduced the time required for the most basic of tasks, such as supplying ourselves with food and shelter, and travel, which instead of weeks or months requires only hours or a day; has failed to give us the excess time to devote our attention and focus to that which is most important and impactful.
Instead, as individuals and as a society we flit from one task to another, giving nary the time and attention each requires to be truly exemplary.
With wave upon wave of stimulus and cry for our attention, most of our countrymen resign themselves to dreaming of a time when circumstances will be such that they will be allowed to choose how to spend their time; that their fortunes will be such that they are free to discriminate in who and how they deal with their fellow; in which they will be allowed to permit themselves respite from their labors to rejoice in their children before they are grown.
And because they are so beset with memories of yesterday’s disappointments, yesterday’s failures, yesterday’s setbacks, that today they fear to envision how things might really be – were they to free themselves of the despotic shackles of their own wandering thoughts and instead grab those thoughts and direct them, thereby creating for themselves in an instant the feelings of calm and confidence and clarity necessary for a man who will declare “I am decided! I will no longer be a victim of circumstance!”
Candor will oblige us to admit, that as good and honorable men who are possessed of an inner knowing that we are and can be much more than our record thus far belies, our first obligation is to free ourselves from the captivating feeling of overwhelm, of too much to do and not enough time with which to get it done.
By way of practical advice, allow me to share a secret practice passed down from one Alchemist Entrepreneur to another throughout the ages.
When next you feel that most reprehensible of feelings, overwhelm, wherein you tell yourself in your mind that there is too much to do and nary enough time, do rise. Walk with firm resolve from your work and for minutes or even hours – do nothing.
Yes, I say, do nothing! because when alas you sit and do nothing, you instruct your mind of the truth; the truth being that you do not have too much to do. Nay, you are merely jumping and doing that which tugs at you, the many things which others demand, and forgetting to do the very few things which will indeed compel you forward!
The truth is that when once you’ve determined the few actions that, when applied, will have an outsized impact and influence on the course of your days, and when you then take those actions without allowing interruptions, you will achieve more in a day than others do in a week, month or even a year.
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I’ve been following this advice and it has been a tremendous help. It’s counterintuitive – when you feel that there’s too much to do – stop and do nothing. Because the real problem is that your thinking has gone off the rails. Realign your thinking, clarify your true priorities and work only on them with uninterrupted focus.
Please share your comments and stories below. And share this, the first of The Alchemist Papers on Facebook and Twitter. If they get a good response, I’ll share more of them.
Dov Gordon
