Making Progress by Doing Nothing
Life is filled with contradictions. We would be wise to get used to it.
If a sit quietly long enough a useful thought will hopefully surface.
This thought might be to do one thing over another.
Other thoughts usually follow in their time and they will work to both reinforce and shoot down that first thought.
Another thought may then surface, perhaps on a totally different topic, and then another.
And what does it look like I am doing from the outside?
Nothing
On the other hand
I could be actively doing nothing like watching a sitcom or playing a video game and I can pretend that I am actually being productive,
but it’s a lie.
My mind is engaged in a distraction, and when it is it can’t be present in the silence that appears to be nothing long enough for something to sprout and grow.
Now be honest. There are times when you think you are too busy to focus. Reading something like this feels like a distraction — a waste of time.
Perhaps it is.
Perhaps it isn’t.
It all depends, really, on where your mind is in the moment.
Now, let me be honest.
There are times when I think I’m too busy to write this, but then I understand I would miss out on the creative quiet time necessary before any word is ever written, and frankly, that’s where the dance is.