I read this book called “Tempo” by Venkatesh Rao, where he talks about how important our perception of the tempo of life is to us and how we either fight it or go with it.
To briefly and extremely overly simplify this book – people love tempo, they want to be in control of this at all times, a constant tempo is the most desirable. This is where we’re happiest, so our goal should be to smooth out the tempo where possible.
I’ve been thinking about this for some time now and have noticed how this is true for me in many aspects of my life.
I swapped from driving for my commute to an e-bike a couple of years ago after realising how much it was costing my driving 5 mins to and from work. One of the topics talked about in “tempo” is the tempo of driving, because a can go so fast and there are speed limits set, we feel the need to drive this speed regardless of what is happening in front of us when we can’t do this we get frustrated and annoyed, someone changed the tempo on us.
A side effect of switching to an e-bike was my tempo slowed down a bit, Interestingly it still takes the same amount of time to commute but my average speed is slower, this means instead of speeding up then slowing down at the intersection I flow through commune with a constant tempo, I feel so much less stressed, rushed and impatient.
Of course, life sometimes has other ideas, recently my ebike motor broke and I had a few weeks of classic cycling, I was worried at first “reality” changed my tempo on me, I wasn’t in control.
The first few days were hard, there’s a hill each way on my commute, just big enough to hurt, but small enough to be bare able, I realised a few years of ebiking had taught me some bad habits, because the motor is “too strong” I would use a similar approach to driving, pedal a bit till I’m going “fast enough” the coast. This doesn’t work cycling, when cycling if you stop pedaling especially going uphill you slow, stop or start going backward.
I was only focusing on one part of the tempo, the other side is pacing, cycling and maybe everything in life is about pacing, being able to pace yourself and not waste all your energy going fast of the flat bit and then have nothing left for the hill, so I started being a bit more conservative on the flats and using my gear properly to try keep the same cadence (tempo) regardless of the terrain. Once again I realise although my tempo slowed I was less tired, I got fit fast, and somehow the commute took only a min or two longer.
You probably reading this wonder why I’m talking about cycling on a blog about making an animated show, maybe you’re one of the cleaver cookies and already see where I’m going.
Making an animated show is also all about tempo, especially while it’s just me and my limited spare time.
I’ve been trying to find the tempo of my show for a while now, what I’m learning is ultimately I’m not in control, the ultimate goal is being able to adjust your tempo to match realities, I’ve had periods of getting heaps done for weeks at a time, and other periods where weeks past with little to show, but regardless the tempo continues and things always keep moving forward.
I’m really enjoying the journey so far and although there is a huge hill in front of me I’m pacing myself and not putting too many expectations on the tempo, I’ll get there eventually one beat at a time.