What I think is crazy for me is that I know the energy for growth comes on its own, when the time is right. It isn't something I can force or manufacture (though my boss at work sure thinks he can). What's on my mind is that playfulness - holding it all more lightly - is sort of the antidote. As someone who also thinks way too much, I've been aware for a while that I am way too serious. In fact, a good friend told me this a decade ago and it's taken me this long to see she was right. There's a lot I want to do, but being serious about it is making me miserable. I've drawn the coyote card a bazillion times, I watch birds being playful every day and yet somehow I translated it as "play" (something additional I have to do) instead of "playful (a way of being)". I am going to start writing the word "playful" everywhere.
I love this, Karen! I've thought a lot about getting more play into my life, but what does that look like? I'm creative, but a lot of my creativity feels like...work, not play. But I like shifting the conversation to playful instead. How can I do lots of things in a more playful way? Thanks for reading and commenting!
Ha - I have no answers, but I am going to let "playful" keep rolling around in my head. It seems like "play" was pushing against a brick wall so maybe "playful" will be different!
“If you’re not growing, you’re dying” is the corporate version of “IF YOU AIN’T FIRST YER LAST!” and that treadmill has haunted my work life for nigh on two decades.
This morning on the drive to work, I was thinking about the constant pressure of it all. It seems that whenever one area is going well, other areas suffers. When I spend extra hours doing things for work, the dishes don’t get done. When I get the dishes done, there is always something else; the laundry, the chicken pen, emailing someone back, having dinner with friends, the list goes on. For all of these things, I am able to keep up with on occasion, but there is no time for all of them. Reading the treadmill analogy made me think of this as a stair-stepper. All of the things are either at the top of the step or the bottom. They are never all complete, never content. Certainly there is a heavy dose of capitalism involved in this pressure, but I wonder if it is also part of the nature of existence. I fantasize about a truly zen world where everything is in harmony and I don’t have this pressure. Is this possible? Maybe. If so, is it possible in the United States of America in 2022? Probably not.
Oh, gosh, Ben, I hope it's not the nature of existence, but maybe it is for us in this particular time and place? We do constantly have to make decisions about how to spend our finite amount of time and that sucks.
What I think is crazy for me is that I know the energy for growth comes on its own, when the time is right. It isn't something I can force or manufacture (though my boss at work sure thinks he can). What's on my mind is that playfulness - holding it all more lightly - is sort of the antidote. As someone who also thinks way too much, I've been aware for a while that I am way too serious. In fact, a good friend told me this a decade ago and it's taken me this long to see she was right. There's a lot I want to do, but being serious about it is making me miserable. I've drawn the coyote card a bazillion times, I watch birds being playful every day and yet somehow I translated it as "play" (something additional I have to do) instead of "playful (a way of being)". I am going to start writing the word "playful" everywhere.
I love this, Karen! I've thought a lot about getting more play into my life, but what does that look like? I'm creative, but a lot of my creativity feels like...work, not play. But I like shifting the conversation to playful instead. How can I do lots of things in a more playful way? Thanks for reading and commenting!
Ha - I have no answers, but I am going to let "playful" keep rolling around in my head. It seems like "play" was pushing against a brick wall so maybe "playful" will be different!
“If you’re not growing, you’re dying” is the corporate version of “IF YOU AIN’T FIRST YER LAST!” and that treadmill has haunted my work life for nigh on two decades.
That is the worst expression I've ever heard. And, also, just not true, which is what makes it perfect corporate-speak, I guess.
This morning on the drive to work, I was thinking about the constant pressure of it all. It seems that whenever one area is going well, other areas suffers. When I spend extra hours doing things for work, the dishes don’t get done. When I get the dishes done, there is always something else; the laundry, the chicken pen, emailing someone back, having dinner with friends, the list goes on. For all of these things, I am able to keep up with on occasion, but there is no time for all of them. Reading the treadmill analogy made me think of this as a stair-stepper. All of the things are either at the top of the step or the bottom. They are never all complete, never content. Certainly there is a heavy dose of capitalism involved in this pressure, but I wonder if it is also part of the nature of existence. I fantasize about a truly zen world where everything is in harmony and I don’t have this pressure. Is this possible? Maybe. If so, is it possible in the United States of America in 2022? Probably not.
Oh, gosh, Ben, I hope it's not the nature of existence, but maybe it is for us in this particular time and place? We do constantly have to make decisions about how to spend our finite amount of time and that sucks.