Are You Too Busy To Live A Full Life? – Ajit Patel UK Sanda Wellbeing
It’s not uncommon to hear work colleagues or friends boasting about
their lack of sleep because their
lives are so busy. It’s as if they’re proud of the fact they don’t have time to
live. Rushing through life without resting or eating
properly isn’t good for either your physical or emotional well-being.
You need time out to simply appreciate life.
Why do we act so irrationally?
In his book, ‘How
The Mighty Fall’, business consultant, Jim Collins, calls it “the undisciplined
pursuit of more.” Three main factors are to blame: Smart phones, social
media and extreme consumerism. The result is not just information overload,
but opinion overload. We are more aware than at any time in history of what everyone
else is doing and assume we should be doing the same.
Success apparently
means being a superman
or superwoman who can do it all at once. So boasting that you spent so much
time at work that you didn’t sleep, in a sense, is a code for telling people
you are successful
and important.
And it’s not
something that only happens at work.
It happens at home, too. But if you devote yourself to having the perfect home
and perfect children,
you are already teaching them ‘the undisciplined pursuit of more’ by making
sure they excel at everything from school
to sports, clubs and hobbies – all while you strive to keep up with the
neighbours in terms of your home, the car your drive and all the latest fashions.
Less
is more. A growing number of people are
bucking the trend. Instead of the ‘undisciplined pursuit of more’, these
individuals are devoting themselves to the ‘disciplined pursuit of less’.
They’re called essentialists.
The goal of
essentialism is to design your life around only what is essential,
eliminating everything else. These people take walks in the morning to think
and reflect on their lives; they don’t work at the weekend, and they turn
technology off when it’s not needed. Instead of spending time on Facebook,
they spend time with their closest friends. Instead of putting appointments in
calendars, they insert periods of free time.
Even big companies
are getting in on essentialism:
Twitter
now has meditation rooms. These companies understand that emotional wellness of
their employees is just as important as their physical wellness.
Essentialism
is about removing the clutter you don’t need from your life. It’s a bit like
throwing out old clothes you know you’re never going to wear again. And the
feeling is just as liberating. If you continue filling your life
with what you perceive as ‘more’, you will be left with the feeling that your
time has been wasted doing things that have no value
Plan
for less. Take a few hours every month to think
about what is essential
and what isn’t. Identify what is valuable, what you really want to achieve and sideline
everything that is not.
Sleep is good. Success
doesn’t come from a lack of sleep; quite the opposite. For example, the best
performing violinists sleep
more than less accomplished violinists, managing, on average, 8.6 hours of
sleep every 24 hours.
Do Less. Transform
your To Do list into a Do Less list. To Do lists only become bigger
over time. If you haven’t completed something by a certain date, it probably
isn’t going to get done, so probably wasn’t ‘essential’
in the first place.
Say ‘No’ more often.
You don’t have to
do anything – unless, of course, you really do have a good
reason. Turn down invitations if you want. Even a promotion opportunity at
work may not be in your best interests, if you’re expected to spend another 10
hours a week working. Use the time you save to figure out what you really want
to invest your time in. Or simply use
it to enjoy life!
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