This morning as I enjoyed a cup of coffee while reading on the couch, I felt a gnawing at me.
This gnawing was asking why aren’t you getting the laundry started or why aren’t you working on your to-do list.
Ha! Got that gnawing on that one – reading has been on my to-do list!
But seriously, why is it we are trained that we must always be to-doing, and be productive to be accomplishing?
Or that we cannot or should not be doing something just for the sake of enjoyment?
Where did this idea come from? Who’s engrained it in us? or at least in me?
I know I am over it. And I’m sure you are too!
It’s ok to do something – like reading – for just the sake of enjoyment!
We don’t always have to be accomplishing something – like cleaning the house, doing the laundry, making money, taking courses, or finding the next bigger, better job.
This came up in a recent discussion as I was saying how I would like to write more. I said it seems harder for us to do things just for enjoyment or for ourselves especially if there is no purpose, like making money.
I think I often feel like perhaps it’s not as worthwhile because it’s not writing to make money. Or, that the writing isn’t for a “purpose.”
But, am I not a purpose?
If I enjoy it or find meaning in it, why is that not enough?
If you have a hobby, or creative endeavor you enjoy, why is that not enough? Why is it we are encouraged to find a way to make money or be “productive” doing it? As if enjoyment isn’t enough reason?
I call BS!
I know I am tired. Tired of this gnawing. Tired of this pressure to always be accomplishing, achieving, productive.
I’m giving myself permission to stop. To stop having to have the next goal right on the horizon.
Is always achieving being productive?
What is achieving anyway? It’s defined as “to get or reach (something) by working hard, to become successful or reach a goal.”
The funny thing is, I am achieving. I am working hard towards something. Just not in the way that we are taught to think of.
We are taught to see achieving as producing. Producing more, like making more money or having more things. These things that are tangible and visible to others.
What if there are things we can produce or achieve that aren’t so tangible?
Taking some time to enjoy a cup of coffee while reading for enjoyment this morning produced a more relaxed, better me.
That is still achieving.
I am achieving becoming a better me.
What if we viewed this as being productive – becoming our best selves. Taking time to relax. Grow. Space to just be.
That is how and when we truly become our best selves. Not responding to this constant gnawing keeping us going, going, going.
I give myself, and you, permission to stop responding to that gnawing. To stop achieving and accomplishing. Be productive just becoming you. Read that book. Write that story. Paint, draw, or color, or even *gasp* do nothing.
“Sometimes the most productive thing you can do is relax.” – Mark Black
