Livre sur l’art de passer à l’action. Peu de notes ont été prises
Highlights
Procrastination Disguised as Busyness
The meditation teacher Eknath Easwaran talks about how people have energy only when it comes to things they like
Procrastination Disguised as Busyness
If you enjoy painting, or playing music, or a good novel, you can get lost in what you’re doing and stay up for hours doing it. But if you have the opposite reaction to a task—if you don’t like it—then even a five-minute phone call or ten minutes to write a letter seems like an insurmountable challenge. So we do everything we can to avoid these tasks.
Procrastination Disguised as Busyness
One strategy is to avoid what you need to do and then spend lots of energy trying to find out why you are avoiding it. This is a great way to continue to avoid taking action. Another strategy is to assume you need to feel like doing something before you do it. Until you feel comfortable or motivated, you assume that it is not possible to move forward and take action. Actually, many people just assume that if the prospect of some task creates discomfort, they simply cannot do it.
Procrastination Disguised as Busyness
a popular procrastination strategy is to do something else instead. If what needs to be done is income tax preparation, then it must be time to clean the refrigerator. If what needs to be done is to work on an unfinished novel, then it must be time to pay bills. We keep busy, convincing ourselves that we are productive and hard working. Our failure to do what is important is disguised as busyness.
Procrastination Disguised as Busyness
Can you see the ways that you keep busy so you can avoid doing what is really important? How do we cure ourselves of this disease?
The answer is obvious, but it cannot be found in words.
Procrastination Disguised as Busyness
Use your time wisely. It is a gift and it is only temporary. What is it that matters? What should you be doing? Are you hiding – hiding behind the veil of busyness? If so, then show yourself. Come out into the light. Be true to the work that has been placed on your path.
The Slightest Move
One of the central principles of Morita Therapy is that we have much more control over our body (actions) than our minds (thoughts, feelings).
The Slightest Move
a distinguishing element of Morita’s work is to put effort into getting the body to take action, rather than trying to manipulate our thoughts or feelings. Often, once the body is moving, there is a natural influence on our emotional state and our thoughts. For example, you may not feel like exercising. and might have thoughts like “It’s too cold outside to go for a walk today.” But once you are out walking, you may find that your experience is one of exhilaration
Starting
As I lay in bed, I continued to experiment with my situation, and I stumbled upon a technique that I believe can be helpful when we need to get our bodies moving.
I found that the best way to get myself up was to start with small muscle movements and then gradually work with larger and larger muscles. So while lying down, I would start wiggling the end of my index finger and then gradually expand that movement to all the fingers on each hand. Then I would wiggle my toes. Then lift my left arm slightly and then both arms repeatedly. Then rotate my shoulders and maybe lift a leg. At that point I could usually swing my legs over the side of the bed or sofa and stand up. Once I was up, it was easy to take a few steps. The more I would move around, the easier it was to keep moving. We might call this the law of momentum—it is easier to keep going once you’ve started than to get started in the first place. This is often true of exercise programs, diets, public dancing, writing—almost anything. It’s a bit like warming up the engine in your car before you start driving.
So the next time you find yourself stuck and immobile—whether from depression or a bout of the flu—try starting your engine with just the slightest muscle movements. It may help your body get in gear, even as your mind tells you “you can’t.”
Starting
today I realize that the most important thing in dividing tasks is the psychological effect of making the task bearable. The idea of small tasks always felt too abstract and not at all magical. But today it had a concrete effect on me. Suddenly, the idea of starting a task didn’t seem so heavy. The tasks just need to be small enough so that they feel conquerable. After that, starting is easy.
So now, do you feel excited or thrilled? Well, good. Get moving. Get started.
Starting
One of the best ways to start something is to step back, look around, and say, “What do we have here?” I learned this from a Zen cook named Edward Espe Brown, author of The Complete Tassajara Cookbook. This is what he did before he began preparing a meal. He would look around the kitchen, in the refrigerator, in the pantry, and ask the question, “What do we have here?” This puts you in touch with the reality of your situation. It shifts your attention from your feeling state (boredom, anxiety, confusion) to the concrete reality of the circumstances surrounding your work.