DO U KNOW THE BENEFITS OF DOING NOTHING?

First, doing nothing gives you the time to reminisce; to review what you are doing and analyze whether or not you should continue doing it. You get to see the value, or the futility, of doing something or anything. Doing nothing for a moment is like pulling yourself out of a picture, so that you can see the picture from a different perspective. We all know how difficult it is to see the picture when you are in it.

When you do nothing, you give yourself the opportunity to ask, “Is it time to change?” Filling your time with something to do is a perfect escape from yourself, while doing nothing forces you, sometimes painfully, to face yourself and your concerns.

In the Hindu tradition, zero and infinity are related. Everything is nothing. Nothing is everything. Another benefit of doing nothing for an interval of time is that it provides space for creating something new. When your brain is fully engaged it is not available to be creative. I have found an interesting common denominator among my entrepreneurial clients: When they were young, they were either sick for a long time or, for some other reason, they were alone with nothing to do. Having nothing to do, they had to create something by themselves. Often they did lots of daydreaming, and over time they developed their dream, which became their reality. With nothing to do, they had the time to evaluate their past and make plans for the future.

What I have been saying so far boils down to this: Having nothing to do is a prerequisite for making a change. Have you ever had the resolve to make a strategic change when you were stressed to catch a plane? Look at a train. To change the rails it is riding on it needs to slow down, or even stop all together.

Full speed ahead and changing direction are not compatible activities. (P) and (E) are incompatible roles. You need (I) in the middle to enable change. Having nothing to do can create the opportunity to make a strategic change in one’s life. What may seem to be a problem could be a blessing in disguise.

Recession might also be a blessing in disguise. Falling sales, falling production, and less pressure to fulfill orders all provide a window of opportunity for the decision makers to reevaluate the past and implement strategic changes for the future.

Now a word of warning: Watching TV or reading a book in the shade of your sun umbrella or swimming or surfing or biking…none of them count as doing nothing. They could be classified as vacation, but not as “doing nothing.” Nothing means nothing. Nothing means having no agenda, no goal to achieve, nothing that engages your mind in any way. Nothing means that your mind is allowed to be free to wander.

In yoga, lying relaxed on the floor (the “dead person pose”) is a pose in itself and a very important one. One has to know how to do nothing. It is a science and an art in itself.

You will never find the time to do nothing; you have to consciously and intentionally take the time to do nothing. Doing nothing is doing something very important. It enables you to change, and in the hectic world in which we live, change is a prerequisite for success.