In this day and age, idleness is often seen as the enemy. We push forward at breakneck speeds and look down on people who aren’t insanely busy. “Oh, they must be lazy,” we think, passing judgement on their life. It’s pretty crazy when people feel proud that they’re sleep-deprived or brag about the long hours of hard work they put in.
Somehow being overworked and over-stretched is regarded as being more productive. Rather than balancing our lives, work (including schoolwork) tends to take over. I know this feeling – I’ve studied all through the night and stayed way past dinnertime at work. Both of these situations made me feel like I was working “hard enough” and anything less made me question my dedication, drive, or industriousness. If I didn’t work hard enough, I felt like people would judge me.
Now that I am working on my own ventures, I constantly struggle with self-judgement. Am I ever working hard enough? Should I be sleeping less? Should I be more stressed? While I’m at home letting the hours go by as I sit in front of my laptop, others are doing the daily grind. Wake up early, drive to work half asleep, zombie through the morning, grab a quick lunch, struggle through the afternoon, finally call it a day, drive home in rush hour, chomp down some dinner, take care of personal chores, and crash before it’s too late to get a decent night’s sleep.
Meanwhile, here I am sleeping whenever I get tired, waking whenever my body says so, and lounging around all day snacking and spending time online. Am I wasting my days away? Do I need more structure? It’s hard to say. Based on societal norms, yes, I should be busier. But who’s to say that those norms aren’t horribly skewed?
After all, being idle has many benefits:
1. You get a chance to recoup so you can be more, next time
2. It’s better for your creativity and allows space for free-flowing thoughts
3. You finally start to notice the world around you (and hopefully appreciate it too)
People meditate or go on retreats for these very reasons. I really think a certain amount of idleness in our lives can really enhance our quality of life. It’s the whole “stop and smell the roses” concept and it’s good for your health too. Why should a bit of peace in our lives be a coveted gem instead of an accepted norm?
As for me, I’m still looking for a better balance between nothing and too much something. The difficult part is differentiating what is work and what is not. Much of what I do is of personal interest, but enhances my knowledge and ability to improve on the businesses too. It doesn’t feel like work, so I often forget to count it. I’m just fortunate to have this kind of flexibility to adjust my workload if I do find it to be too much or too little. If only the American culture didn’t emphasize work-work-work-stress-work so much. Maybe we’d be a happier bunch.
