Do Nothing, Get a Prize

You do your best work when you feel good. (See Effectiveness Habit #2.)

And if you don’t feel good–if feel like poo–you may think that getting into action will make things better. It doesn’t. Pushing or “guilting” yourself to do or do more feels worse.

Instead, try giving yourself permission to do exactly nothing. Zip. Nada. Then do nothing.

When you choose to do nothing, something good and unexpected happens.  It’s like pressing your personal reset button. After a very little while and without trying, you get new insights and clarity. You get inspired. You will see something that you can do right away that will feel great, that will resonate with your SweetSpot, that will be in line with your mission. And you will quickly be back into a natural flow of action.

That feels good, yes?

In your corner,

Mike

P.S.: giving yourself permission to do nothing can be difficult. If you are used to tirelessly working, working, working, doing nothing can be scary. If you have a tendency to stall, procrastinate, or spin, doing nothing can feel like you are inviting more of what you don’t want into your day. Rest assured. These illusions evaporate over time. Feel free to start small. Try giving yourself permission to do nothing for some short amount of time, perhape 10 2 minutes.

P.P.S.: If you try this and you don’t see the insights or feel the inspiration, there could be two reasons. First, you didn’t really give yourself permission. If you kept thinking thoughts about what you could or should do, try again. Release all thoughts about what you might do and just do nothing. Second, you may be unsure of your SweetSpot or mission. If you did get clarity and inspiration and they directed you to go shopping or play video games, that’s a good sign you need to re-examine what would be an ideal career for you. Call me. 🙂

P.P.P.S. FYI: In a related post, here, I suggest another way to pause, feel good, then get back to action.