Heart
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"First with the head, then with the heart, you'll be ahead from the start."
- From the book The Power of One by Bryce Courtenay
If at some point you find that you have lost faith in your ability to do what you want in life, I recommend reading The Power of One by the South African-Australian author Bryce Courtenay (1).
The book follows the story of a young boy, nicknamed Peekay, as he grows up in South Africa from 1939 to 1951 (don't worry, I won't give the story away if you haven't read the book yet). In this story, Peekay learns that the mind is the true athlete within any person; the body is simply the means by which the mind runs faster, jumps higher, kicks better, swims harder, or boxes better.
Peekay applies this fact to boxing through the motto, "First with the head, then with the heart," in which the head is defined as the devised plan or strategy to achieve a goal whereas the heart is defined as the implemented grit or resolve needed to carry it out. Applying this to boxing, Peekay learns that winning is done by devising a plan to defeat a particular opponent, followed by implementing the grit to carry it out. Doing this in the reverse sequence doesn't work; passionately swinging away at an opponent without thinking ahead results in defeat.
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The quote, of course, is meant to apply not just to boxing but to how one should tackle life problems in general.
Aspects Of The Mind
Although the quote above uses body parts to represent concepts, it is important to recognize that both "head" and "heart" are still aspects of the mind. Both the plan of the "head" and the grit of the "heart" arise from within the mind. If we stop using words that refer to body parts to represent these aspects of the mind, the quote is more accurately stated as "First with the plan, then with the grit, you'll be ahead with the rest of it" (alright, the last bit can be left out).
Regardless of which words we use, Courtenay's quote still fails to mention a third crucial aspect of the mind, the one meant by Japanese swordsman and calligrapher Miyamoto Musashi when he stated (2):
"Even if you strive diligently on your chosen path day after day, if your heart is not in accord with it, then even if you think you are on a good path, from the point of view of the straight and true, this is not a genuine path. If you do not pursue a genuine path to its consummation, then a little bit of crookedness in the mind will later turn into a major warp. Reflect on this."
When he mentions "heart," Musashi is not referring to Courtenay's grit - rather, he is referring to heart as the essential instinct or motivation that drives a person towards certain goals in life. Furthermore, Musashi is saying that even if you have devised a plan ("the good path"), and even if you have implemented the grit ("striving diligently"), those two things are not enough to succeed.
If you do not begin by listening to your instinct, even a perfectly applied plan and grit will result in a major warp.
Instinct-Plan-Grit
The Austrian-British philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein believed that all philosophical problems are linguistic confusions that arise from misguided attempts to consider the meaning of words independently from the context in which they are used (3). While I mostly (though not wholly) agree with this particular view, this is indeed the problem that arises if we compare the usage of the word "heart" in isolation of the context in which Courtenay and Musashi use it - Courtenay refers to heart as one thing, Musashi refers to it as another. A word in isolation may mean many things, depending upon the context of the situation it is meant to describe; this is the reason so much of the brain, the entire basal nuclei, is primarily devoted to processing the context of any given situation.
Without the situational context, we'll never quite get the words right. Nonetheless, if we attempt to combine the above quotes into a single quote that both Courtenay and Musashi might agree upon and that works for most situations, I think it would approach something like this:
"First with the instinct, then with the plan, last with the grit."
Seen this way, the sequence for success is as follows - first, gain awareness of an essential instinct or motivation and use it to create a goal, second, devise a plan or strategy to achieve that goal, and third, implement the grit or resolve needed to achieve that goal. You need all three - instinct, plan, grit - and in that specific order.
Alternatively, if we return to using body parts to represent these concepts, perhaps it could be said like this:
"First with the gut, then with the head, last with the heart."
You'll be ahead from the start.
Solace.
References
(1) Courtenay B. 1989. The Power of One. Ballantine Books.
(2) Musashi M. 1645. The Book Of Five Rings.
(3) Wittgenstein L. 1953. Philosophical Investigations.
