As if this is not enough, we must ring in the New Year with a promise (or ten) to join the gym, be more helpful to little old ladies, curse less, go to bed earlier, spend more time with our loved ones, take the bus instead of the SUV, or whatever else may have been looming over your conscience for so long now that it is like a cozy old blanket you can't wait to snuggle up with at the day's end. And if you are an entrepreneur like me, you are probably feeling intense pressure to step things up a notch with your business. Maybe you have been meaning to rewrite that now stale business plan. Or perhaps your marketing materials could use a makeover.
But what about those less tangible (read "less measurable") activities that constantly linger at the very bottom of our growing to-do lists? You know what I'm talking about. It's the stuff of a multi-million dollar industry called "self-help." Coaches, therapists, and other life enhancement gurus constantly tell us we are not living our most authentic life; we are not realizing our ultimate "self." They remind us that our world is in fact abundant yet its most prolific inhabitants remain empty, questioning, longing, and generally discontented. Why is this?
I think the answer is quite simple and does not require half the discipline required to drag our weary behinds to the gym each morning or to forgo that cigarette after dinner each night. Counterintuitive as it may seem in this crazed world of busy work and to-lists, I believe that all we must do to realize our ultimate self is simply put aside some time each day, each week, or even each month to sit still! And then, once you are sitting still, think about nothing or think about everything. It doesn't really matter what you think about. Just be conscious of the life you are living! Society has become one big ant hill of business I'm afraid, so unconscious of itself its members have lost their purpose, their raison for being, and their sense of reason period.
So, when you are sitting there, don't even focus on trying to quiet the mind as the Buddhists say. Indeed, this requires yet more discipline, more effort, and probably more stress because you certainly won't get it quite right the first ten or twenty times you try it. And then, alas, you will start procrastinating even this small task!
No, just sit there and reflect. Maybe even write a few things down as they come to you. Use the time to brainstorm, daydream, plan, or whatever you have been meaning to simply put some thought to. Reflect on what has transpired in your life thus far, what has transpired that day, and what could transpire in the future if you decided to only focus on those things that mattered to the realization of that elusive ultimate self. This is not indulgent, certainly no more indulgent than haphazardly running from task to task each day never questioning each task's purpose or position on your less-than-prioritized to-do list.
So, I propose that the only New Year's resolution you should consider making for 2006 is to do less and but think more. And when I say think I don't mean analyze. That's work and we all have enough work to do. But to permit yourself time to think and reflect, you will be forced to shorten that to do list. By committing yourself to less people, less projects, less clutter in your day to day routine, you provide yourself the mental space to really contemplate all those things you meant to do last year. And then—if you sit and think long enough—you will probably discover that a lot of those things were not really that important anyway.
Ok, so maybe I am suggesting you make two resolutions for 2006. But they're easy ones: 1. Do less. 2. Think more. That's it. Less is more. Happy New Year.