Monday, March 26, 2012

Down time means down

Down with the flu... 2 weeks of bed rest... finally coming back to having a coherent thought which became "If I get out of bed, I should do some laundry."

This was at odds with other folks assuming that my down time had allowed me to sift through plans and create big ideas.

Lately, as a society - especially in the workplace, we appear to undervalue the necessity of not-thinking-about-things-at-all: every second is money; every word is meaningful; every action should ripple far and large. We look ahead constantly, plotting like chess players, convinced to pause or leave the board will mean a forfeit or a broken chain of thought.

Sometimes the best influence is in being present today, listening to the day's minutiae and participating instead of watching and planning. Some days, at work, we could ask how the day is going and pitch in on the current task. In general, we should save space & time to be present for the team/friend/family member in the moment they ask for our attention. For ourselves, we could remember that as much as the world can revolve without our minute-by-minute vigilance - we can still succeed by ignoring the world's interruptions now and then.

Being sick, I focused on healing instead of planning what I'd do when I was better. I'm sure some projects need attention and some folks are waiting on direction. It is a shame it took a flu bug to remind me once again that both the mind and body need rest on a regular basis.

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