79. Do Nothing

"Should you want to contain something, you must deliberately let it expand.

Should you want to weaken something, you must deliberately let it grow strong.

Should you want to eliminate something, you must deliberately allow it to flourish.

Should you want to take something away, you must deliberately grant it access.

The lesson here is called the wisdom of obscurity.

The gentle outlasts the strong.

The obscure outlasts the obvious."

-Tao Te Ching, Verse 36

Here's my personal addition to the above verse...

"Should you want to get stuff done, you must deliberately do nothing." - Virginia Wilcox

That's my current theory of accomplishment.

So far... I've given myself no goals for the evening... and I feel like I'm not really doing anything... no deadlines ... no pressure... no stress... no nothing... and YET... somehow I have managed to organically accomplish a ton of stuff I've been intending to do for a while... mostly having to do with cleaning and organizing my room and work-space (which have been a total disaster since the dawn of November a.k.a. the busiest month in living memory).

I loooove giving myself plenty of time to do things in an organic/not pre-planned way.

It's soooo much more fun to do something in the very moment that you actually FEEL like you are excited to accomplish that task... rather than FORCING yourself to do it because it HAS to get done or because you SHOULD do it.

It's like a brain trick!... By telling myself I don't have to do ANYTHING... I actually motivate myself to WANT to do things... but only the things I really wanted to do to begin with.

And... Since 2011 has been alllll about doing more of what I really WANT to do and skipping the stuff I don't really like, I can feel good about doing what I want to do because I know that's exactly what I SHOULD be doing. Doing more of what I love has made me a much happier human being... and I'm still gettin' stuff DONE.

So, anyway, I recommend being lazy and doing nothing... Try it! And see what fun stuff you can accomplish.

;-p

Loves,
Virginia

“Practice not-doing and everything will fall into place.” - Lao Tzu