How to balance productivity and purpose

Why are you burning yourself out on check boxes and to-dos?

Don't you see? The purposeful things in life, those are productive too. They are essential to your productivity. How can expect to thrive in an area when you are sucking yourself dry in all the others? Where do you find energy when your purpose tank isn't filled?

You will have countless moments to be successful.

To check things off your list of to-dos.

But you will not have endless opportunities of precious moments. The people you love will not always be around. Children in your life will not always be young. You and your friends will not always be young. This year, the sun will not always shine. Those moments of laughing with people until your stomach hurts, those will not always be there waiting. The sunset and the sunrise are different every single day- they will never be the same. They are just patiently waiting for you to notice.

Whatever it is you need to do, you will find time for that. You will find a quiet moment to fill it with productivity. And if you can’t find it, you’ll make it. 

But will you also make time to have lunch with your father? Will you make time to pick up a phone call from someone you love? Will you make the time to pick up rocks on the beach and just be alive and curious? Just to exist and enjoy without any intention of being productive?

Think about the things that make you lose complete track of time. The nights that the number on the clock didn’t matter. The days that ran into nights, when the burning sunset took you by surprise. What were those things? Who were those people? What were the books that took you to other worlds for hours? What were the songs you danced to on repeat?

Do more things that make you lose track of time.

Do more of the things that make time spread out before you into something that is truly a mere concept instead of a constraint.

Go explore new places and be inquisitive and let yourself experience the world through the eyes of a child. A world where every day and everything is new and constantly changing. Experience the world like this because that’s what this world is.

That’s what you are.

You are not a sitting rock. You are not a constant. You are in a continual state of change. You are a tide rushing in and pulling back out and there is the high moments and low moments and neither are constant. The only thing that's constant is the constant state of fluctuation.

Embrace that. Don't hold yourself to the same standard as you did 5 years ago. What you want now is okay. What makes you happy and fulfilled now is okay, even if it's different. What you need now is okay even if it's different.

Where you are now, whether it’s a good place or a hard place or even a place that feels impossible, it’s not forever. Things will change. The tide will go out and it will come back in and you will fight the current sometimes and sometimes you will relax and let it take you where it will.

So wherever you are right now, experience it. Experience just to experience it. Not because it will make you better or contribute to your success or because “mindfulness” was on your list of to-dos. Just feel it. Observe it in whatever way you are able to. Sounds and smells and movements that catch your eye. Colors and voices and whispers in the wind. Look out and look closer. Look at the smallest little ecosystems outside. The busy bee and the excited hummingbird and the new leaves just beginning to unfold.

You don’t have to be constantly working towards something.

You don’t have to run yourself ragged to be worthy of anything. Anything. All you have to do is do your best - your actual best. And then pull back and be proud of yourself and move out of productivity and back into purpose.

Don’t stay tensed. Release. Surrender to life. Appreciate this small moment wrapped around you.

When you feel anxious and you're collapsing under the pressure you placed on your shoulders, stop and give yourself grace. Make space - release the pressure. Settle into a place of purpose. Do the things that make you feel fulfilled. Do something that makes you feel like you lived today. 

Even if it’s just going for a walk with no headphones. Or going to the beach. Or the woods. Or the dessert. Go. See. Call someone who makes you feel filled up with gratitude. Paint something with no intention of making it good. Dance around the kitchen to your favorite song. Go for a run. Stretch for awhile just because it feels good. Watch your favorite movie. Read for hours. Get pizza with your best friend. Go bake something. 

Maybe you think these things aren’t productive enough, so you put them off. Maybe you’re worried about “spending” your time on the wrong things. But life isn’t a big transaction where you spend your entire existence trying to pay the piper. Pay him for what? 

Enjoy yourself. Laugh more. Relax more. Give your mind space to breath. This whole universe is here for you to experience. To notice. To wonder about. To observe. 

And truly, if you don’t give yourself time for living, your tank is not going to be full enough to function at its full potential when it is time to knuckle down and be productive and push yourself. You’re going to be ran dry. You’re going to have nothing left to give. Honestly, how do you expect yourself to function at full capacity if you don’t make time for the things that energize you and fill your tank with joy and gratitude and wonder? If you want new ideas and a fresh perspective and creative fuel, you need to have experience.

And when you feel like it’s all too much, and at the same time somehow not enough, write it down.

Write it down because it matters. Write it down because it helps.

What have you done today that was productive? What have you done today that was purposeful?

Do you see?

You’re doing more than you know.

Do you see?

There is still room. There is room for more purpose.