While you’re reading this I’m… well, I’m not 100% sure what I’m doing, but it’s probably got something to do with beaches, pools, sun, cocktails and relaxing. It’s a hard life.
Much as I would love to spend a post gloating (don’t worry, I’ll fit some more in later on), it occurred to me as I sat down to write this on the eve of my flying out with my new wife to enjoy our first holiday in wedded bliss that it’s now all too rare to actually do nothing.
We’re all about the hustle and bustle, checking our phones, emails, feeds. The thing I’m most looking forward to and probably most enjoying as you read this is being away from all of that.
Nothing is not nothing
The biggest problem I think many of us face when trying to sit and do nothing is the shear volume of stuff that there is for us to do.
If we’re not working on something specific, we’re checking email. If we’re not checking email, we’re checking our Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+1. If we’re not doing that, we’re catching up on the blogs we haven’t read, or writing the posts we should have written, or reading that book someone told us about or, or, or…
It’s all about getting things done, it’s about filling every minute with something productive. It’s about never being seen to do NOTHING.
And that, my friend, is where we’ve got it wrong.
Screw meditation
I say that, I don’t really mean it. Sorry, I’m just not that controversial, I guess.
But what I mean is, you don’t have to meditate to do nothing. In fact, you don’t have to not be doing anything to do nothing. Doing nothing is about just enjoying what you have; it’s about living in the moment and loving it, it’s about feeling refreshed, revived and ready to tackle whatever’s coming next.
None of us can see the future, much as we may wish we could – or as some think they can. All we can do is use the lessons of the past to enjoy the present we’re living. And our present shouldn’t all be about doing things.
It should be about feeling free to disconnect, to get away, to separate ourselves from the day-to-day and just enjoy a few moments, minutes, hours or days of peace, quiet and whatever else we may want to fill it with that isn’t related to something we should be doing.
It’s about taking the time to do the things we really love, without worrying about the rest of life.
Just for a moment, being free from it all.
Go on, try it. Do nothing.
- all right, no one is really checking their Google+ all the time… [↩]