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PLORK: Creative Laziness, Part 2
An entrepreneur I know, starting a new venture, gave himself three years to turn a profit, firmly believing that working very hard for that amount of time would produce results. And it did!
But another entrepreneur, in a very similar field, went into her business with the attitude that she had something very valuable to sell, that people would rush to buy her service, and that she would begin making money almost immediately. And this is what happened for her!
Look at your own experience: Do you fill time with busywork, when you could actually produce your achievements in much less time? You have to trust yourself enough to let go. If you feel you deserve to have fun and succeed - however you define that - you deserve to have more leisure time.
Folks, "now" is your only reality, and the leisure time you take now is the only leisure time you can count on having. Further, taking time for leisure provides an incentive to make opportunities for more of it, and time to form a clear vision of what you truly want.
Here are a few ways to create for yourself these energizing leisure experiences. Take a day off and think up a bunch more of your own!
THE UNEXPECTED DAY OFF
Arbitrarily take a day off and "spend" the time on yourself. Whatever you have to do, get away from your routine. Pick a day you would never normally be off. See what it feels like to be a member of the leisure class for an entire day.
THE BETWEEN-JOBS/PROJECTS VACATION
Changing jobs or starting new entrepreneurial ventures is becoming more the norm than the exception. The tendency often is to rush right into the next job or project or business venture.
Instead, treat yourself. Pretend that it took you an extra month to find the new job or line up all the ducks for the new enterprise.
Enjoy that month as a reward for being so productive. Often self-doubt is the only obstacle preventing you from delaying the new starting date.
Think of it this way: if you are valuable today, you'll be even more valuable a month from now. And it isn't bad psychology to let your subconscious know you feel prosperous enough to take a whole month off without pay!
THE SABBATICAL
This is a ten-day retreat you take for yourself, with a task in mind. Write down ten positive talents or characteristics you have.
Make an agreement with yourself to relax, but focus your creative imagination on ways to enhance that positive part of you, and make it more valuable, in a lazy day of contemplation. You will thus be taking one full day for each positive talent or characteristic.
The ideas you come up with will be worth hundreds of times any income you
may lose in those ten days.
(I like to schedule this one around the end of the calendar year, when things are usually slow anyway.)
THE REWARD
Whenever you have made some goal, reached some new accomplishment, done something you're proud of, take a few days off to congratulate yourself.
After finishing a web development project, I always take a couple of days off in which I do absolutely nothing, not even think about any new projects, even when I have another contract waiting to be started.
There have been times when I had less than three months living expenses in the bank and I had no idea when or how my next income would come in. Even then, I resisted the temptation to frantically go out and try to solve my financial problems.
Inevitably I found myself so refreshed after a couple of days of leisure that I was able to generate an endless stream of valuable ideas almost effortlessly.
You owe it to yourself to provide your creative mind with an opportunity to prove to you that leisure time pays off - physically, emotionally, and financially.
Just in terms of health, you can't afford not to take it easier. Learning to eliminate stress from your life can add five years onto the end of it.
So the next time someone asks you why you're taking the day off "for no good reason", just tell them, "I'm eliminating stress from my life, developing a lot of new valuable ideas, and enjoying myself right now - in the present moment!"
Read the biographies of some of the great achievers in history and you'll see many of them have been basically lazy.
To have the freedom of mind just to let go of goal orientation is a major breakthrough for most people.
The creative mind needs a state of relaxed calm to really get going, and working hard is one way to deny and avoid your own creativity.
THWART THE GUILT-TRIPPERS!
Taking leisure time will inevitably create hostility in people who don't want you to have more fun than they do. These folks will try to make you feel guilty. Let them in on the secret! Show them you're having so much fun that you're not susceptible to their guilt trip.
Someone who has the ability to relax, play and let the creative mind work freely, and the freedom to exercise that ability on a regular basis, has the kind of self- confidence that can succeed in any endeavor and enjoy life to the fullest.
About the Author
Best Regards, Robert Brents, "The 80/20 Guy" http://www.RobertBrents.com For your free four-lesson e-seminar, How To Write, Publish, Market & Promote Profitable How-To Manuals, email mailto:freehowtoeseminar@sendfree.com Copyright 2001 Robert Brents and Blue Gecko Press.
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