2-3-4 Friday 

‘Seeking to spark the most potential within you per word of any online newsletter’

 

1 thought 

When was the last time you did nothing? No, I don’t mean listening to a podcast, scrolling through your social media, or replying a message. 

 

Nor do I mean meditation. Because if you’re really honest, even meditation has turned into a goal-driven activity where you’re looking to be mindful, breathe, for the next X number of minutes. 

 

I mean nothing. No goals, no process, no purpose. 

 

I mean that. When was the last time that happened for you? This week, I was listening to Shane Melaugh, entrepreneur and founder of Ikario, an online community looking to unleash your potential. 

He suggested that our minds are usually in one of three modes. 

1. Input - you are consuming something - listening to music, podcast, or watching a movie
2. Idle - you’re doing nothing
3. Output - you are working, creating something like an article, or a presentation, or an email. 

Most times, your time is in input and output mode. That may be because you’re afraid of boredom. Of having nothing to occupy your mind with, and to feel that you’re not being productive. 

Let me invite you to a unique experience. 

 

That of being bored. Remember how as a child you invented castles in the air, imaginary dragons to fight, and ran around for no apparent reason. 

 

Here’s a chance to rediscover that.

Boredom. 

 

Why find boredom? There are all the arguments, aren’t there? About how it stimulates creativity, blah blah blah. 

 

Honestly? It’s to let go of overwhelm. There’s so many things to learn, to attend to, to do, and sometimes we forget that maybe you don’t 

live to work. 

 

You live to live. 

 

1 quote 

“In a Wired piece by Steven Levy, the cofounder of Apple—nostalgic for the long, boring summers of his youth that stoked his curiosity because “out of curiosity comes everything”—expressed concern about the erosion of boredom from the kind of devices he helped create.” 
― Manoush Zomorodi, Bored and Brilliant: How Spacing Out Can Unlock Your Most Productive & Creative Self

1 tip 

Here are the steps. 

1. Schedule two hours
2. Take yourself to nature. 
3. Leave the tech at home (everything - your phone, your earpiece etc.)
4. Walk for two hours without any purpose, or plan. It’s not a hike to a destination. It’s a walk with no purpose. 
5. Write down how that experience was like for you. 

 

John

liveyoungandwell.com - Work Your Love

P.S. if you’re struggling with overwhelm at work, and don’t know how to continue, let’s talk.