On the busyness of life
To enjoy each moment as it comes, however it comes
For some reason, we’ve come to promote busyness.
Whenever you reply with ‘I’m busy’, it panders to your ego ever so slightly. Well, If I have many things to do, I must be living life to the fullest. The more my calendar was filled up, the more important I used to feel.
But the deeper I think about it, I realize that it’s just not true.
It’s the opposite.
The Art of Doing Nothing
Ask people when was the last time they did absolutely nothing and they often can’t remember or cite something from a long time ago.
As a kid, you’re chilling — you don’t care about keeping track of time — you’re just having fun. As an adult, the clock rules your life. The watch is almost a puppeteer — its hands moving and controlling life, as we switch from one task to another non stop.
Do things for the sake of doing them. Enjoy life as it comes, and don’t worry so much. Planning may be ~good, dwelling about the future isn’t.
The Paradox
You may ask: “Life is short. Shouldn’t we make the most out of it? Pack and do as many things as we can while we’re still alive?”
Truth is that the finiteness of life is a delicate subject, one we often avoid deliberating about. Which is why being idle is so hard. The moment we’re free of distractions, we’re free to think about love, life, and our own mortality, which can be scary. So we choose to distract ourselves by picking up another distraction.
Helpful steps to keep in mind
(To avoid reverting back to our daily self of “accomplishment” when we work 24x7 and burn out every few weeks)
- Reduce dependencies on yourself: You might feel important if all information is flowing through you but that also means that everyone’s going to ask you every time they need to get something done. Enable everyone around you to make decisions — the goal is to make everyone self-sufficient and decrease their reliance on you. It doesn’t make you less important, rather you’re just valuing your time more.
- Enjoy each moment as it comes, however it comes. Dance to your favorite song, sit cross legged on the cool floor, hear the sound of the waves crashing on the sea, watch the sun set, listen to people talk about how awesome this blog called Purple Theory is, watch the sun set slowly on the horizon. Embrace just being in the moment, even if it’s only for a few minutes at a time. Don’t overthink, don’t stress about tomorrow’s events — just be.
Practice not-doing and everything falls into place. <Insert literally any Zen or Tao poem here — they all talk about being alive in the given moment.>.
Resources:
I have been heavily inspired by some of the following resources and would highly, highly recommend reading them after you’re done doing nothing :)
- In Praise of Idleness, by Bertrand Russell
- The Lost Art Of Doing Nothing: How the Dutch Unwind with NIKSEN, by Maartje Willems (Author) and Lona Aalders (Illustrator)
- Tao Te Ching, by Laozi (original)
- The 4-Hour Workweek, by Tim Ferriss
