Life and Art, Recursively

The secret to success in life and in art is to live life recursively.

In programming, a recursive function is a strange animal that can call itself . . . a function that can build upon itself.  In certain applications, recursive functions can be extremely powerful and effective.

Build upon what you build

Structure your life, art and business as recursive algorithms.

Living recursively means that it's not enough to just be "good" at what you do . . .it's not even enough to "build upon what you have".....you've got to learn to, as Darren Rowse of problogger says, build upon what you build.

Building upon what you build means that today's output becomes tomorrow's input....and so on and so forth . . . .

For example, in your artwork, today's masterpiece is tomorrow's average work . . .. and, better yet, tomorrow's masterpiece is next year's average work.

In your sales, today's large sale is tomorrow's small sale.

In your health, today's jog is tomorrow's walk.

Expand Your Horizons

Living life recursively is more than just setting and achieving goals.  In fact, it's much more powerful than goal-setting because, at this moment, you can't even imagine what you can accomplish in the future.  Think of living recursively as setting "big" goals . . . or let's say "big outcomes" and then apply the power of recursion to those desired outcomes.  Just give yourself the overall direction . . .if you build upon what you build, opportunities will arise that are not even in the realm of possibility for you today, at this moment.

I used to set extremely detailed goals, but always exceeded them, so I've stopped wasting my time and now I spend more time thinking about the recursive algorithm that will govern a given area of my life and then I .... simply get started by taking action.  As long I start off in the right direction and keep adding more inputs, the right results will happen

It boils down to habits

I've written about this before, but the formula is pretty simple:  develop the right habits, add the power of recursion and some time for the algorithm to work and you will reach your desired output.  If you want to be a great painter, you must develop a habit of painting every single day . . . . . and, in addition to simply painting, be sure you make sure that you're a little better today than you were yesterday.


Today's post is a bit esoteric . . ..  with all the talk of recursion and algorithms . . . . what do you expect?  I'm a software craftsman......I'll try to make tomorrow's post a little bit better.

Sincerely,

Clint Watson
Software Craftsman and Art Fanatic