About Life in Whitespace

A few years ago I had an epiphany. I realised that it was often easier to clear obstructions out of the way, than to simply push a project forward. Those little indirect actions, easing the path, can often make a bigger difference than a lot of direct effort.

In a game of chess, the goal is to set a fatal trap for the enemy king. But the most important part of the game is getting the opposition pieces - obstacles to trapping your opponent's king - out of the way. Putting the other king in check only happens the end.

One of the things I love doing when sightseeing in a new city is getting a timed ticket for unlimited travel on public transport. This simplifies the task of getting to the places I need to be in, or meeting people I want to see. It's all easier and more fun because I removed the obstacle of finding a ticket for each trip.

Obstacles sap our motivation to act. But once we clear them away, our energy runs free, like undammed river water flowing downhill.

Recently, I have wondered about a life where the obstacles are removed not when we realise they are in the way of something else, but just because we recognise them as obstacles.

Every night before bed, I spend time in my kitchen, putting away things, washing up, clearing and cleaning the surfaces. I don't do this because I have a particular recipe in mind for tomorrow, but because I want to remove the obstacles - out-of-place food, dirty plates and cutlery, rubbish - so that my kitchen space is free and ready for anything.

I feel that open freedom that whenever I turn over a new page in my journal. One that is whitespace: clear and empty. Nothing to have to work around, nothing to get in the way of whatever I want to create there.

This blog is about living with minimal obstruction, living light and open, living with little holding you back. It is about life in whitespace.

Three threads will run through the posts on this blog. The first one is insight: realisations that I am impressed by, at least enough to write about - and most often these will be fed by the insights of others. The second is science; shared, reliable, objective understanding makes a great complement to subjective insights. The final thread is application. The reward I want from this writing is clarity in living well, and I hope to offer readers the same.

Enough metadata, thank you dear reader for coming along with me.