Are you feeling as productive as you had been? If not as much, maybe this short article will help you to find more peace this season, do the things in your life that matter (and feel more relaxed!).
It’s okay to be uncertain, as we’re all pivoting in some ways. Embracing pivots is helpful for understanding a life of purpose and meaning.
And hopefully you’re still chasing dreams and desiring a better-than-you-started-future outcome, as your optimistic beliefs will carry you far. Believing today accelerates your getting to the other side.
These days you may have to work a little harder to break through the clouds for victories, but they’re there.😊
What could be helpful for you?
First, focus on the right things.
The better idea is to be daily productive and continually develop better ways than from your past. You’re a day wiser than you were yesterday and year wiser than last year.
Spend your time wisely, being conscious to not just take on anything or task put in front of you. We can change and design our paths.
We can remove old ways that don’t serve us anymore or we don’t want again. Evolving helps you grow. It’s a strength.
Sure, life can be easier in a routine and automatic existence, but trying to live in a predictable bubble is not the whole life.
It’s also unrealistic in our unpredictable world and can set up for disappointment.
…When you’re open, loosening the reigns allows you to explore and discover more about yourself and the world around you.
Letting go of the past makes life easier and makes you more nimble to be able to roll with the punches. Then the things that cause unrest can more easily roll off your back.
It’s also much healthier to not live with negative emotions, ongoing stress, anxiety, or irritation from situations or people.
Kind confrontation is better than showing anger, seething, or holding onto stress that no one else knows about.
I used to not like change because I’m a planner. That was the type of work I did too in food menu planning for events. But then I experienced situations where change turned out good so my “all change is bad” theory was busted.
And I realized holding onto the past was fearful thinking. When I let go of what I couldn’t change, life got better. And life is good. And that could be for you too.
And you probably know what that feels like.
Secondly, begin with the end.
From the time we were young kids, we were taught to think in a linear way and to look ahead at tomorrow (or at adult profession dreams when we were way too young to know the realities or what we really wanted).
Today as an adult, a better call is to look at the happiest outcome of your entire life… through the end.
Of course, your perspective will change over the years, but for now, you can consider the question: what legacy do you want to leave?
In other words, what do you want to be remembered for? When you look at it that way, you cut through the stuff you’re preoccupied with today that won’t matter or be as important in the end.
Here’s something you can do today if that’s something you’re trying to answer (or want to discover better ideas about your best life):
Be more relaxed.
You get your best ideas when you and your mind are relaxed and receptive to thoughts from your loving-productive channel.
You’re most relaxed when you’re sleeping, but you’re not able to process your thoughts then and there. Asleep, you can’t really work with those ideas that come in dreams even if they seem productive.
…Btw, I wanted to mention, this is a two-part post. The second part will be about changing, unproductive non-loving thoughts. I think it’s important because that’s where the daily brain can live a good chunk of the day and block out your good ideas if you’re not managing thoughts optimally.
So, getting back to productivity and being relaxed…
When you’re awake you can do two activities at once. Multi-tasking can be productive or counterproductive.
Maybe you’re a natural multi-tasker. That’s me too, my female-Vata side is wired that way, and to like variety.
But there are times when multi-tasking is counterproductive like when you’re trying to read and write at the same time, watch television or listen to a podcast.
Those competing activities create noise in your mind as you have to work twice as hard to drown out one to focus on another.
But when you pair a relaxing activity that you can put on auto-pilot, like thinking through an idea while taking a shower or making your daily tea, new ideas mysteriously and creatively emerge that weren’t there before.
That’s why it’s good too to take mindful breaks, switching up activities to recharge and let new ideas enter. One idea can set you off on a whole new path.
Recently over the past few years, people have changed their thoughts and perspectives on this life: seeing it more precious, valuing time more, and seeing how quickly it goes by.
In our western go-go-go society, it’s common to be unhappy in the corporate world. That’s where I came from.
The more you did and proved your value, the more you could be indispensable (although nobody really is).
The pressure was always there running as an undercurrent. Potentially losing a job for whatever reason was always a looming threat to job security.
And vacations were almost always too short and few. Relax was a bad word in those environments. Taking on stress was not described as life-shortening as it is these days.
Relaxing was associated with being lazy and there was no spinning the idea of laziness as productive.
Laziness was associated with old age, not working, and 4-legged furry pets. Today laziness is normal.
Unhealthy burning the midnight oil, drinking multiple espressos, sugary canned drinks, cramming food down, skipping meals to get more done, and eating junk to get us through, was a growing epidemic.
So hopefully those were our past ways. One good outcome from being more awake and slowing down (and maybe that’s how you are now) is people are taking the burden off their bodies.
We were never meant to have a 24-7-on all the time work-focused mind.
If the body doesn’t want to naturally do this, that’s a sure health warning. Now we’re reconsidering our lives and what we want now and in the future.
And you can leverage these evolving societal changes and reconsider time for your best use.
Finding time throughout the day to do nothing that needs broadcasting (like relaxed yoga poses, napping, meditation, or watching shows) is a good use of time that can lead you to new ideas. And then you can get back to being busily productive as part of the balance.
And if you’re a recovering 24-7 workaholic, you may never want to go back to a rat-race existence if that’s what you had.
You’ve learned some lessons and now know a better way. And you’re smart not to want to go back. You don’t get to redo any age.
Going back would be like wearing a worn-out and familiar old shoe that no longer looks right on you.
Today, you can retire those shoes, and run with a new pair to get to a better place. And don’t be too surprised when new ideas meet you there on your next move. 🎉