Do you have time to just let your mind wander? Or do you feel you must always be doing something useful? When we are always running headlong into projects, checking our To-Do lists to see how much we didn’t, and feel that we have to be productive every minute in order to justify our existence, we’ve lost focus.
The focus on living our lives, not running through it like we’re in an airport trying to catch a plane. Somehow we have the idea that not only are we “our jobs,” we are how much we produce. As if we are in an assembly line, about to be cast off into the destroy bin, because we don’t work well enough to pass inspection.
We may have admirable goals and things (probably too many things) that need to be done. And for some, especially for those raising kids alone, it can seem as though the swamp is going to rise up to swallow you if you don’t keep running to finish the list.
Once we are on that running track, it seems as if there is no exit; no rest. We begin to feel we are losing ground just by breathing. We lose sight of what we are running for and what life is about. “Must keep running” – the chant of the exhausted and disillusioned, trying to catch up to their lives.
We actually are more productive and creative, when we take the time to allow for margin in our life. We need that down time, that freedom to be creative and at peace. Unfortunately, the best way to learn this is by doing it wrong. Which we do so often, not allowing daydreaming, and free thinking. Rather we try to cram all of our thoughts into the box of productivity.
Think about where you have done your best thinking or come up with your best ideas. Think about one of our first reactions to big offers of responsibility: Let me take some time to think about this. Who hasn’t come up with great ideas in the shower, after you’re quiet in bed at night, or on a long driving trip?
We are not perpetual motion machines. We need a break. We often have our best ideas when we aren’t focused on productivity but existence. The need to Be. So schedule in some me time (taking care of and pampering you). But also, schedule in some Be time.
Oh, and keep a pen and paper or recorder handy. You might find you have some wildly wonderful ideas. Catch ’em while they’re dropping. Like fireflies, here for a moment and then gone into the darkness.
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