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rosewritesAfter dinner, part of me really felt like taking a walk because the weather is reasonably pleasant. The other part of me felt super lethargic and didn't want to wear myself out, setting myself up for a not-super-productive tomorrow. That part won.
I read an article recently about how exhausting it is to spend energy thinking about what you should be doing or what you want to do, but not doing it. That's unfortunately how I spent my evening. It is so much more productive to make a decision and stick with it, rather than waffling back and forth forever.
The essence of the article focuses on bringing mindfulness to your actions – and doing them simply for the sake of doing them. Move through these actions as if each one is your main purpose, and you'll find it's surprisingly satisfying.
This is my favorite part of the article:
There was no sense of trying to balance my desire for doing good and useful things with my desire for comfort and pleasure. I let the good and useful always outrank the pleasurable and comfortable. Operating this way entailed a fair amount of physical discomfort, but it felt far more emotionally comfortable than trying to manage two competing sets of values.
And here’s the interesting part: pleasure and comfort arose constantly anyway. I enjoyed them when they did, with no sense of tradeoff or guilt. However, I didn’t do anything just because it was pleasurable or comfortable, and ironically that made for a much more pleasant and comfortable existence.
Best of all, there was no regret whatsoever about how I spent my time. Not during, not after. It was like living in a regret vacuum. I used the time to live.
The article writer is currently engaging in an experiment of living this way, simply doing tasks that he feels need to be done without succumbing to the emotional pull of staying comfortable.
I read an article recently about how exhausting it is to spend energy thinking about what you should be doing or what you want to do, but not doing it. That's unfortunately how I spent my evening. It is so much more productive to make a decision and stick with it, rather than waffling back and forth forever.
The essence of the article focuses on bringing mindfulness to your actions – and doing them simply for the sake of doing them. Move through these actions as if each one is your main purpose, and you'll find it's surprisingly satisfying.
This is my favorite part of the article:
There was no sense of trying to balance my desire for doing good and useful things with my desire for comfort and pleasure. I let the good and useful always outrank the pleasurable and comfortable. Operating this way entailed a fair amount of physical discomfort, but it felt far more emotionally comfortable than trying to manage two competing sets of values.
And here’s the interesting part: pleasure and comfort arose constantly anyway. I enjoyed them when they did, with no sense of tradeoff or guilt. However, I didn’t do anything just because it was pleasurable or comfortable, and ironically that made for a much more pleasant and comfortable existence.
Best of all, there was no regret whatsoever about how I spent my time. Not during, not after. It was like living in a regret vacuum. I used the time to live.
The article writer is currently engaging in an experiment of living this way, simply doing tasks that he feels need to be done without succumbing to the emotional pull of staying comfortable.
