Just Be
We live in a busy world. One in which our value is often measured in work rate output, yield, GTD (get things done).
A few years ago, I was involved in a conversation with my friends about work and career. We were exchanging experiences and talking about future plans. When we asked one friend what he had been doing in the last few months, he simply smiled and said, “Not much”, offering no further explanation.
An awkward silence fell over our crowd of young professionals. Many of us were working hard and long, putting in more than 40-50 hours a week, and madly juggling work, hobbies, relationships, and social commitments. His casual response was akin to heresy.
Accepted Busyness
Busyness seems to be a prized trait in our culture – as if the more commitments, activities, appointments, meetings, hobbies, and responsibilities we have, the better and more successful people we are.
Don’t believe me? Just ask a friend what he’s doing today, and you’ll likely get a long exhaustive list of various tasks. We’re always in a rush to do something, go somewhere, or meet someone. It’s almost as if we’re trying to outdo each other in how many things we can get done each day.
In fact, an entire industry has evolved around personal productivity and time management – various books to teach us strategies, software to optimize our schedules, and YouTube gurus to dispense advice. Sources may differ, but the objective is the same – to optimize every second of the day to the maximum so we can get more things done.
It’s Time to Stop
Minimalist living is the opposite to the culture of accepted busyness. Minimalists learn to say ‘No’, eliminate excess, consolidate, standardize and delegate not to get more done – but to have less to do.
Minimalists are not freeing up space in their schedules so later they can fill them with something else, nor they’re slashing the time spent on one activity to squeeze in two or three more. For them, busyness is dead.
The goal is to leave some time empty, open, and free. Instead of always Doing something, it’s time to Just Be.
Just Be
Just Be may be a foreign concept to many of us.
How often are you able to make a cup of coffee/tea and just kick back and simply let your thought wander?
How long has it been since you stared out the window and daydreamed?
When was the last time you went to nature and listened to the birds or soaked for an hour in a bubble bath?
In our busy is important to be successful culture, we can hardly imagine wasting time on such idle pursuits. And God forbid if someone caught us, or otherwise found out that we’re not doing anything at the moment – they’d think about us as lazy, unproductive, inefficient; they’d think we have nothing to do with our life.
However, when we set some time aside to Just Be, we’re not wasting it, we’re cherishing it. We’re engaging in an incredibly fulfilling pursuit; one that will relax us physically, strengthen us mentally, and nourish us spiritually. It doesn’t matter whether we are meditating, taking a walk, or just lying on the bed and staring at the ceiling. What matters is that we’re stopping, turning out distractions, and embracing the silence. We’re taking the opportunity to think about ourselves, our hopes, plans, and dreams.
It’s important to Just Be because we really need this time for ourselves. When we’re always doing something, it’s easy to lose sight of our true selves. We think of ourselves as the guy who owns a car repair shop, an overworked store manager, or the stay-at-home parent who cooks, cleans, and drives the kids around – instead of the person who loves hiking, dreams of being an actor, or yearns to change the world.
Stop defining yourself by what you do and start to realize who you truly are. You don’t need to finish up everything today. There will always be tomorrow. Put that wrench down, close the report, and send kids to friends. Take some time for yourself and Just Be.
Life is too short to constantly run in circles.
Stop.
Smile.
Breathe.
Be.
Cheers!
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