In praise of idleness

I keep seeing the occasional spike in the article that I had written awhile back – The Art of Doing Nothing so I feel like to add a few thoughts to that.

Productivity seems to have become the end-all-be-all goal in our current time. Driving up productivity is an unquestionable aspect in driving more values in business, at all cost.

The attitude from such execution results in the mentality that we have to be useful, productive ALWAYS into all aspects of our lives. Thus…

To be doing something useful is great!
To be idling is blasphemy!

I know we don’t really say things like that but when anyone says that he had done nothing over the weekend or something, he’s usually met with the reaction “oh… (maybe you should be doing something more useful, or be out doing something exciting).” Well, something along those line. In short, the reaction to an “idling answer” is always kind of awkward.

I find there is a lot be praised to be able to be idle — and that includes our physical and mental capacities. To be honest, we need to be able to be idle. Not always, but I think it’s necessary on intervals.

There is something rejuvenating about it.
A lot of creativity arises from moments of idleness.
Epiphany usually only happen when you can stop to be idle.
If we ignore all the above, we simply need a balance in life.

Idleness is the couter-balance of productivity.

Slightly different version of being idle is to be able to move/act at leisure.

But I think in our pursuit of growth and mostly only economically… sometimes also for fame and power, we give up this important concept. And we almost chastise each other for being anything other than productive.

I read something awhile back that I’ll always remember… You know what kind of people would not be hostile and try to always fight with others? People who can stop to look at and genuinely enjoy a beautiful scenery.

I enjoy being able to be idle and leisurely.

Maybe we need more people like that. Maybe we need to start teaching that.

I feel the reason behind our distaste against idleness has to do with our deep desire to control. We want things to happen our way instead of letting things happen by itself when in things, many things happen outside of our control. Sad to say, that is more healthy to let things take its course. To always control is a very short sighted perception due to insecurity.

It is also a fact that our brain does MUCH more than we are consciously aware of. Thus when we feel sleep/rest is wasteful, that is also completely wrong. Think of it as a digesting process when we let ourselves rest… of all the events that happen during the day, the stress, the hormone, and all the emotional wear and tear that occurred during everyday!

Originally posted 2012-09-26 22:28:39. Republished by Blog Post Promoter