12. THE WAR – time to start a real battle – first battlefield: terminology

Only one side is more or less visible – vulnerable and defenseless, the side which is mostly victimized and abused. The other party is well camouflaged, more aware of what’s going on, more aggressive and vicious.

Here they are:

Free spirited vs GTDsts.

No more, no less. This terminology is not perfect, there is not much research done from this angle, below is a mere attempt to clear this approach and give more definitions.

Free spirited people live by inspiration – there is nothing more important  for them than a creative process itself. They are mainly in balance with the surrounding in its most general form. They feel the energy flow in the universe, they can connect to it and draw from it. Their activity usually does not fit into formal restraints of so called “normal life”.
Inspiration is a very sensitive matter. It comes and goes easily. It totally disregards physical and spiritual constraints. In an environment of tasks, schedules and deadlines it simply dies.

GTDsts (the term comes from Get Things Done) are different people – their world consists of rigid blocks of actions separated and divided by schedule lines,  boundaries, and deadlines.
There is a wide range of GTDsts.

The most innocent type is not harmful

 – they are just personalities trying to cope with reality in the form it’s being presented to them. They just strive to complete all the tasks thrown at them without any sort of questioning and/or resistance. These are honest and brave souls whose efforts create problems mostly for themselves and their loved ones. They are usually stressed out, they are everyday workhorses of any civilization.
These people are borderline personalities. At some point in their lives they might start questioning the never-ending stream of tasks and orders coming towards them and can change. Often the change goes against their personal traits and they go on all sorts of spiritual quests.

At the same time there exists a more dangerous and harmful species of GTDsts – task blasters and order givers or so called “leaders”. These are more aware of the battle. They are intimately interested in social structures supporting their desire for power. They go to any length to keep surroundings in order, using all the tools at their disposal.

For this type the free spirited people are deadly enemies. And unlike the latter, the extreme GTDsts fight. They fight brutally and relentlessly against free spirits.
The fight takes very different forms. In left oriented (socialistic or communist-like) societies like Soviet Union or North Korea they use the “community” oriented rhetoric. They try to present free spirits as enemies of the states, enemies of the people and so on. Their vocabulary consists of words “must”, “duty”, “civil obligations” and so on. They always organize people into structured groups. They create plans and schedules for all group members and meticulously demand compliance.
Towards free spirited individuals they employ terms like “lazy”, “asocial”,”anti-social” and such.

In free-market oriented societies like United States, activity of GTDsts cannot be transparent to the same degree as in communalistic countries. Here they can’t openly fight freedom since it’s a publicly declared and accepted virtue. They choose more subtle strategies. They go after the free spirited people individually.
What could be better in this fight than a precise use of words? And their most effective and massively used weapon is this word:

PROCRASTINATION.

It’s no coincident that this concept never existed in Russian. Since the dawn of humankind Russia was not a free society, so the organizers of all shapes always had enough weaponry to deal with free souls. Only now, 20 years after the USSR collapse this word crawls into Russian language and it’s still considered foreign. I believe the reason is that the organizers there started to realize: they need to learn from the West.

Meanwhile in the West, in the most free country ever, USA, the use of this term is rampaging beyond believe. Even though the phenomenon of putting tasks off does somewhat exists, the use of the word “procrastination” covers much more grounds and used tremendously more often than its originally intended application.
It is being used to brand anything which interferes with a so called “normal task flow”. As a result almost any creative activity, which requires an uninterrupted flight of thoughts is automatically stamped by this truly ugly term. The ultimate outcome of this is effectively a prosecution of the most precious and sensitive matter of humankind – creativity itself, replacing it with endless TO-DO lists.

What can free spirited souls do about it? What are they actually able to do being under constant attacks from organizers of all origins? How can they resist this vicious stampede if they don’t even understand what’s going on, and in most cases believe their accusers that they are somehow inferior beings comparing to their “well organized” counterparts?

I think the very first step should be – create a proper word for this situation. When someone’s mind is subdued and forced to finish certain imposed task within strict time limits – how can this be called? Of course they would say it’s overcoming procrastination, and even praise you for doing it.

But really – what’s going on here? What is the other pole – opposite to procrastination?
I believe this situation is best described by this word:

PROCRUSTEZATION. 

It’s coming from a Procrustean bed … which is an arbitrary standard to which exact conformity is forced. (Read more on Procrustes).
It’s forcing you to violate your mind, your thoughts by a foreign task which must be completed within a rigid timeline.
Every time you are being invited to drop whatever you are doing (writing, painting, composing or just thinking) and finish some very important task in the name of something – ask yourself – ARE YOU BEING PROCRUSTEZISED ?! Are your mind, your time, your soul being ripped apart by things which supposedly must be done?

Here is the weapon for all the lonely free souls:

If you are being called a procrastinator or absent-minded, don’t just quietly accept the tag, don’t just sit there and allow this to stick to you. Look carefully where this term is coming from and most likely you will find a procrustezating scenario. 

Learn to recognize your real enemy – PROCRUSTEZATION.
Then instead of just GTDing – find a way to eliminate the task. 
Instead of just Getting Things Done by a to-do list, burn the list.
Instead of fighting procrastination – fight PROCRUSTEZATION and the world will become a better place. 

Imagery used:
Theseus and Procrustes by Doug Blanchard.
Inspiration by Belkis Ramirez