Confession: Every morning I wake up to face a list of 20 things to do, with time to only do 10 things, and somehow I always wind up squishing in 30 things.
In “The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying,” author Sogyal Rinpoche describes a Western tendency he calls active laziness: the need to compulsively cram our lives with a lot of unimportant activities, leaving little time to confront what really matters.
What Rinpoche describes reminds me of what author Milan Kundera philosophized about in his book “Slowness” (a slender volume I ironically sped through in a night.) Kundera explains how we live in a highly sped-up culture, and that our need for speed promotes forgetting. For example: If you want to forget something (like a bad event), you will naturally pick up speed walking down the street. If you want to remember something (like a person’s name), you’ll naturally slooooow down your steps!
Kundera warns how speeding up your life not only keeps you from remembering daily details (“Oops! Forgot to pick up more milk!”) but also keeps you forgetful about your overall life values and how to live your most passion-filled, love-filled, growth-filled, fun-filled life.
Meaning? The next time you find yourself racing quickly down the street, know that you’re not only running to your next appointment- you are ALSO literally running away from contact with your truest feelings, deepest needs and most valuable insights! 🙂
With this in mind, I’d like to encourage us all to look more closely at our TO DO LIST, then make sure our lists also double up as a WHAT MATTERS MOST LIST!
SOME HINTS:
1. We should all be sure to include the two top happiness determinators: spending quality and quantity time with our loved ones and having time to do our passions/signature strengths!
2. Watch what you watch! According to a 2007 study, the average person spent two and a half to four hours a day watching TV — the equivalent of a part time job. Yikes!
This is an edited excerpt from Karen Salmansohn’s THE BOUNCE BACK BOOK. Check out Karen’s work and original prints at her website and/or say hi to her on Facebook.
