Doing
I was talking with my friend, John Leslie and he was describing a neighbor who had just moved in down the road. He said you could see all of the moving boxes stacked in the garage and you intuitively knew they needed to be unpacked. He watched his new neighbor look at the mountain of boxes and then proceed to grab a broom and sweep the driveway.
How many times do we sweep the driveway and ignore the task at hand? Sweeping the driveway is a diversion. It’s like continually talking about your problems. It’s a diversion for doing.
I love philosophy. I love learning about all the different perspectives and approaches. Some of the most knowledgeable people that I’ve met, who are schooled in almost all the philosophies, seem to do the least. They get caught up with the driveway broom. Their approach seems to be if you talk about it enough, something will happen. Or, if I learn a little bit more, then I’ll know enough to do something. These folks are perpetual procrastinators.
The Chinese adage I use as a mantra when I find myself ready to sweep is this:
“Talk doesn’t cook rice.”
It brings me back to the present and put a prioritizing focus on what needs tending to.
There is the other side of the lazy-boy philosopher’s coin. That’s the pattern of “activity.”
Activity is also sweeping the driveway, and the hallway, and the porch, and the deck, and the basement, etc. These folks are perpetual doers. They can’t just watch TV. They must fold laundry and watch TV. They read and watch TV at the same time. They iron and watch TV. Activity is a diversion as well. Believe me, if I were hiring someone to clean my house, I would pick someone who runs the pattern of activity.
This pattern will eventually burn you out. Your body has rhythms. There is a time you are loaded with energy and a time you could just take a nap. Activity prevents you from resting due to the parental, social and cultural conditioning that you must be doing something – otherwise you are being lazy. When you push through your down cycle once too often, your body will send you something to slow you down – aches and pains or a disease process. The message you are receiving from your innate intelligence is, “if you won’t slow down, I will slow you down.”
So where is the ecstatic psychic? (happy medium).
That’s really for you to discover. You probably fit closer to one of the profiles than you do the other. The first step, as always, is recognition. Recognizing a pattern of behavior while it is going on is the first step to outgrowing that pattern. Regular recognition and then interruption of the pattern will bring you to a new threshold – one you can step across into a new place for you. Then you’ll instinctively do what truly needs to be done.
All the best,
John
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