Resisting the Urge to Rush Around
Finding Stillness in the Work
Last night I had to walk through the Bay Street area of Toronto, which is Canada’s equivalent of Wall Street. One can’t help but feel a little less than everyone sitting in the restaurants sharing their after-work food and drinks.
But it doesn’t take long to realize that nothing is lacking here, not a molecule is out of place in my body. The mind wants you to think that something is wrong when it sees things that don’t agree with what’s happening on the inside.
I realized that a similar, small anxiety runs through me when it’s time to do work that represents a bit of a challenge.
Will I be good enough to do it? Was everything I’ve managed to finish in the past a big fluke?
If you’re not careful these voices will shut you down fast. For me shutting down means opening up Google News and seeing the exact same headlines that I saw an hour ago.
In these moments I am hiding from doing my Most Creative Work. The work that’s Not Urgent but Important on the Eisenhower Matrix.
Calling in Stillness
When I’m on my game, I remember that I have to slow down to do creative work. I remember to take a few breaths before starting to work.
I start to be conscious of those times when I take a perfectly good chunk of hours to get some creative work done, yet run off to the music store instead.
Slowing down goes hand in hand with becoming aware.
Some of the other symptoms of rushing around mentally and spiritually include getting overly sensitive about your work and its quality. You compare yourself to others without realizing it.
You complain that all the cards are stacked against you. That everyone’s taking your free time away when you in fact gave it away because you didn’t value your work and the time it takes to make it.
Slowing down is a way to come back to the centre or the home that is inside of yourself.
When you’re rushing around, it’s like walking around Wall Street at 5pm. You’re thinking and feeling everything on the outside, and your inside barely exists.
So the next time you’re ready to do your Most Creative Work, take a few minutes in quiet first. This can be meditation or it can be listening to a relaxing soundscape with your eyes closed. Find that connection to your inner self before you start working and just know that everything is going to be ok.
You can’t change people around you. Many people will not like the output of your work. And that’s ok.
Because as you continue to sit down with the inner critic, you crank through the resistance, and over time you start to find your people.
I can’t speak highly enough about the Visual Timer family of products on Amazon. Yes it’s just a countdown clock but the way we keep time with ascending minutes and hours doesn’t really help me get things done.
For example, if I have 45 minutes to finish some work before I have to get ready to leave the house, I will put off getting ready as long as I can. But if you use a countdown clock like this one, it makes it much easier to know when you have to close your laptop and get going.
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Elliott
Excellent piece, and such a great reminder to slow down