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.