FOUR REASONS TO DO NOTHING (AND...THE ORIGIN OF NEW YEARS DAY) Around 5000 years ago, the aliens landed and handed out little calendars to everyone who was building those statues on Easter Island. Here, they said, look here. And they pointed to a box labeled January 1. Wha, said the Easter Islanders. Wha? Wha? Wha???? Its the first day of the year, you idiot. From now on, when you wake up on this day of the year every year youre going to say, THIS IS THE YEAR! Thi I Yee THIS IS THE YEAR! THIS IS THE YEAR! Yeah, say it like you mean it. No more eating. No more dating losers. Exercise. Keep a diary. No more business failures. This is it! Nonstop improvement! And then the aliens left. Everyone stood around look at each other. January 1 one of the Easter Islanders said. January 1! another repeated. They started jumping around, January 1!! Then they started doing pushups. All of them. They started to eat better. They joined a gym that was at the other end of the island. They invented disco. But just three months later they were back to dragging huge stones thousands of miles to make those big statues. January 1? one of them said to another. Well, the other said, maybe next year. And that, Mollie, is the story of how January 1 became the most special religious holiday on the entire planet. Its the day we wake up and say, now Im different. January 1 went viral after that. First in Australia. Then with the Eskimos. And others. Youre such a good father, daddy, said Mollie never. --- Many young boys, upon reaching puberty (like me around the age of 19), study the 14 foot statue of marble created by the great sculptor Michelangelo. The sculpture not only shows David in the process of deciding to attack Goliath, perhaps the most iconic story in history ever since Malcolm Gladwell immortalized it in his famous movie. But it also shows Davids penis, apparently in correct proportion to real life. In 1501 the statue was a block of marble. Michelangelo chiseled away at it, subtracting marble every day for three years, until it finally became the greatest sculpture ever. Most people when they start something they think, I have to DO, I have to ADD, I have to CREATE. Many New Years Resolutions are about doing more. Being more. Achieving more. THIS IS THE YEAR! But greatness cant be achieved unless you subtract. You cant be a surgeon unless you wash your hands of the dirt. You cant have energy until you learn to sleep. How come life cycles? Because the brain feels bad only when cortisol, a neurochemical, is shooting through it. The body metabolizes cortisol fairly quickly. The trick is knowing when you are in a cortisol-induced state and then just sit down and do nothing. Maybe read a book. Or watch a funny video. I dont know. Just do nothing. Subtract from what you normally do. Thats how you sculpt through the inside of yourself to create a work of art. Heres some times when I try really hard to do NOTHING: - ANGER Things dont always go my way even though I have massive control over The Force. And so sometimes I get angry. Anger is the wintercoat on top of my fear. When Im angry I try to figure out what my underlying fear is. Maybe Im afraid Im a bad father. Or that nobody will like me. Knowing where the roots are, allows you to harvest the field. I try to sit down and not act on my anger. Sometimes it works. Sometimes I yell. Practice. - PARANOIA Andy Grove, former CEO of Intel wrote, only the paranoid will survive. Thats a pretty ugly world. Where the only survivors left are people constantly looking over their shoulders and whispering conspiracy theories to each other. I have gotten paranoid often. Someone is trying to screw me! And usually Im right. But theres nothing I can do about it. When ideas are your currency and you are an idea machine, you can always rest, rejuvenate to come up with new ideas, and leave behind the paranoia. - ANXIOUS Will this deal work out? Will she like me? Will I run out of money? Will they like my next book? Or project? Or whatever? Did I say something wrong at the party? Am I a good dad or husband or friend or partner? Of course all of these things matter and are important. But anxiety never helps them. Anxiety only weakens you right now and does nothing to solve the future. And thinking about what others think of you is the best way to hand over your life to them. Your life! Eventually, we all end up at the same place anyway. Why rush it? Resting gives you the energy required to solve these big issues later. - TIRED Anatoly Karpov, former world chess champion, said he only studied three hours a day. After that, he said, its useless. Dan Ariely, author of Predictably Irrational and one of my favorite podcast guests, says we are at our peak productivity from 2-4 hours after we wake up. So I try to be productive during those hours. And when Im tired, I try to read and take a nap or go to sleep for the night. --- I admit I woke up today and thought to myself, THIS IS THE YEAR! Because theres nothing wrong in thinking it. This is the day also. This is the hour. The moment! And, who knows. Maybe it will be. But first, I did nothing. I fell back asleep and had a weird dream about Easter Island.
Posted on: Thu, 01 Jan 2015 16:13:08 +0000
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