Busyness is not my Business

“I ain’t got no time to get to where I don’t need to be.”  - Jack Johnson “Breakdown”

Do less to do more.

Like this scene from Silicon Valley:

I am looking for an alternative mindset to busyness and productivity being the Holy Grail in business, in our jobs, in our lives. Something just doesn't feel right about that to me. Perhaps a better alternative is to think in terms of "Peaceful Engagement Centered in Beingness"?

Let there be no "doing" in all of my doingness. Any truly expressed, inspired art is filled with much activity but with no sense of "I just gotta get this done." Can I not endeavor to live an artful life? To work an artful day?

A personal example that hits close to home is that a beautifully sung note cannot come from a tense throat. Can I not endeavor to sing a peaceful note, a peaceful tune?

"Doing" to prevent something bad from happening, to prevent getting yelled at by a boss or a team member or a client, or doing to attempt to manipulate or force something good to happen that "will be salvation" or "make it all better" or "make us finally happy and safe" - that all is activity rooted in fear.

"Doing" rooted in fear often (perhaps always) causes more problems than it solves and creates a greater need to do stuff that didn't originally need to be done, but now needs to be done, because what was done prior was not done from a place of peace and inner guidance - and thus created more "work." (This reminds me of the quote, "You might not have time to do it right, but you'll have time to do it over.")

Fear-motivated activity, or activity rooted in ignorance or impulsiveness, is akin to a hamster in a hamster wheel. The more we run in the wheel to do stuff or get somewhere, the more we just get nowhere meaningfully different from where we came. We only expend energy keeping the wheel, and us, going nowhere. We stay at the same energetic level, at the same level of consciousness, at the same manifesting thermostat setting, in the same realm of limited possibility, and - give or take - at a very consistent level of life experience: stressed or relaxed, fearful or inspired, scared or peaceful.

There are graceful ways and graceful timings for everything. There is a greater wisdom that wants to unfold if we will let it.

As a silly example, take an aspirin bottle with a safety lid. A person could struggle for five minutes trying to remove the lid, exerting all kinds of force, using all sorts of tools, cussing and hurting themselves, and doing a "ton of very important work" to remove the lid because they were not aware that the two little safety arrows were not aligned. They could feel really justified in all their effort. They could say to their boss, "Look at how hard I am working on this problem!"

Or another way would be to approach the aspirin bottle peacefully, taking a moment to settle in, looking at it, and listing for any intuitive ideas. One would likely then realize, "Hey, there's some alignment arrows on this thing." The arrows could then be aligned and with very little time or apparent "work," the cap could effortlessly be popped off.*

Two different ways to approach the same challenge. It's not rocket science. Often little things are big things, but little things are also often overlooked when under pressure or in haste or at any energetic level rooted in fear.

I am starting to think that this hyper-focus on productivity, doingness, and work may be a culturally accepted smokescreen covering up fear.

"It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society." - Krishnamurti

For me, now, I have arrived at this idea:

"I ain't got no time to be busy."

*Aspirin bottle metaphor courtesy of Becky Skoglund.