Say yes to spontaneity
Say yes to those spontaneous adventures that will make your life more memorable and exciting. These moments will often teach you things that cannot be found elsewhere.
If you are a productivity addict like me, you may have become tyrannical over your time and controlling over every aspect of your life.
I got to the point where I tracked exactly what I was doing every hour of the day, the week, the month. All categorized into projects.
I even had a "Non-productive time" category, and I would beat myself up for wasting any time. It was a toxic relationship with life and living itself.
It's cool to look at yes, and you can gain some insights from it, but there are some lessons I've learned recently that goes contrary to this lifestyle.
Spontaneous adventures lead to an increase in productivity and well-being
The last two weekends I decided to shake things up a bit and say yes to early morning adventures I would have otherwise been too tired or too stressed to attend. As well as some late night events.
My recent adventures
- February 23rd Friday evening:
- I had a modeling dinner.
- February 24th Saturday morning:
- I went to 宜蘭 to go surfing with 3 other friends. In addition to surfing, we sumo wrestled in the sand, got our feet eaten by fish, and soaked naked in a free public hot spring.
- February 28th Wednesday afternoon:
- I went to 象山 hiking alone, thinking about life and practicing filming with my camera.
- March 2nd Saturday evening:
- I had another modeling dinner.
- March 3rd Sunday morning:
- I tried paintball for the first time. Then we soaked in a natural hot spring in 陽明山, then had an after party at a very rich Taiwanese home. We then got stuck on the mountain with no bus home and had to walk 2 hours to get home.
You would think being so busy would make you exhausted and leave you no time to be productive. But turns out it's quite the contrary.
The more you enjoy life the lighter your heart becomes. The lighter your heart is, the easier it is to focus and feel intense energy.
Let me give you an analogy.
If I am home all day, sitting in my room, stressing about the things I need to do, I become depressed and my energy levels are shaky, anxious, and nonexistent. I end up between the edge of productivity and wanting to rest and in the end, end up doing neither. I neither accomplish anything I need to do nor do I enjoy my time and recover. It's a twilight state and it is the worse place you can be.
Instead you should clearly distinguish the time for play from the time for work.
When I play and go on adventures, I come back loving life. Then, in those 2 hours remaining, I accomplish more than what is possible for a depressing full day of forced homestay drudgery.
So if you are feeling similar, that you can neither accomplish the things you need to do nor can you rest and recover, then you need to try saying yes to spontaneity.
Shake things up a bit. Get outside your comfort zone. Make your life more interesting. Go on more adventures. Do not worry about the other things that you should be doing.
Remember you are not a task completing machine. And remember what the true goal you are working towards. In some people's case, it's to save up money, become successful, so that they may travel the world. Well, you should start a little now. Taste a little bit of that reward to give you the calories to keep you moving forward. Don't be tyrannical over yourself, treat yourself well. And enjoy the beauty of life.
I hope you all are having a wonderful day, and if you have any comments or questions, feel free to ask down below. I look at them all. Or feel free to contact me directly!
Warm Regards,
Jacob Pugmire
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