Do Less. Enjoy More.

The beginning of this year has been so stressful. Fun, but stressful.

Self-publishing my very first novel was a steep learning curve – started the marketing part already in October last year, had the cover made, worked with an editor, downloaded the ebook to Amazon and Smashwords… Learned the process and the technical issues. And on 31st January finally got the book out.

Phew.

On top of that I worked at a day job which is very demanding and requires constant concentration. Also I was on a deadline for yet another project, which had to be ready by the end of March. (I got it ready two weeks in advance)

This means working during the day, and then coming home and working all evening on two very time consuming projects until bedtime. And if you have ever worked that much, you know your brains keep on churning the projects in your mind and it is difficult to sleep.

With time this much work does begin to take its toll.

I noticed this when I had no patience for little things not going right. Before I just waved my hand and didn’t care much about hiccups in minor matters. When I started tapping my fingers on the desk, impatient to wait for even a few seconds for a computer program to do its thing, I began to suspect I was stressed out. And then I actually snapped at an impolite person in a situation I would have shrugged off normally.

I just don’t snap at people. I don’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings on purpose, and in my opinion we should always try to be polite and friendly towards others.

Thankfully a little vacation came just then. Gave me time to see the perspective of things. I managed to calm my mind, but I noticed I had learned the stressful attitude so well this past year I was impatient with everything. I was no longer under any deadline-stress. I could choose to do or not to do. And there I was, still impatient, still acting if I had to do everything as soon as possible.

This is when my subconscious stepped in. I woke up one morning repeating a sentence. I woke up because I realized I was repeating it over and over again in my dream.

The sentence was: “Do less. Enjoy more.”

Wow. That stopped me. I had been so busy being productive my life was just doing stuff. No time to smell the roses. All work and no play.

I decided to follow the advice. I made a list of things I “needed” to do. And this list had no deadline, no “do before” date to it. The only thing I decided I would do daily was writing the next novel. And if I had time and felt like doing something else, I’d take one thing from that list of to-do things. Only one per day. And do it. I would choose the thing based on how joyful it felt to me that moment. And this way I will go through that list, and then start another one.

I chose to do things only when they felt joyful to me that moment.

This letter is one of those joyful things. This is my only “chore” today. And a pleasurable one at that. Do you also have a stressful attitude out of habit? Do you really need to do all those things on your list today? If not, how about enjoying life a little more? Choosing things to do because it feels good at that moment?

Do less.

Enjoy more.

Leena

If a friend DID forward this to you and if you like what you read, please subscribe by visiting the newsletter subscription page here

Do you have comments? Ideas? Feedback? I'd love to hear from you. Just reply to this zine and tell me what you think!