Creative Rebellion Essays: Actively. Doing. Nothing.

During these times, I often hear from friends and associates that they are either bored or feel like they have to write the great American novel or develop the next great startup idea given that Airbnb, Pinterest, Uber, Square, et al arose out of the ashes of the great recession of 2008. Oh, and Sir Isaac Newton spent his bubonic plague time working from home on things like inventing calculus, analyzing color, light and the spectrum as well as studying gravity which led to his creation of the laws of motion. 

Boredom or extreme achievement seems to be the two horns of the dilemma of being shut-in. But I would propose that the two are actually somewhat related. Let’s say you are trying to write a short story. Try sitting still until boredom sets in. Sit with the dullness. Allow the mind to settle and don’t permit yourself to do anything but either sit or write. No social media. No Internet browsing. No doodling. Just sitting in the boredom and restlessness. Eventually, writing will commence just because the mind has quieted. And once that resistance is penetrated, then things generally start to flow. And it is out of this natural state of flow that the birth of great ideas arise like your next great startup or a new song or maybe if you are a genius, a new theory about dark energy and the expansion of the universe. Or maybe just nothing. Nothing comes up. Nothing ventured and nothing needed to be gained. For now.

MAYBE ACTIVELY DOING NOTHING FOR PERIODS OF TIME DURING THE DAY IS WHAT WE NEED TO PRACTICE RIGHT NOW. 

We are all valiantly trying to continue business-as-usual through Zoom, Slack and email. And we should. This is business reality. But another reality is the anxiety that comes with the unprecedented times we are in. We don’t need to stop work if we are privileged and lucky enough to have it, but we should honor the fact that these times are not normal. At all. 

There’s a rhythm to life of work and rest. And so much of modern society is driven by the mantra of more, more, more. More things. More distractions. More money. More work. Our value as human beings appears to be tied into how busy we are (ever notice that the rote response to “how are you?” is “I’m crazy busy”) and how much money we have. 

It wasn’t always this way. I was interviewed the other day by Mitch Joel for his Six Pixels of Separation podcast and one of the things he brought up was, Remember when people used to have hobbies? I thought about that. Almost no one I know has hobbies. Sure they do things beyond their day jobs but they are more like side-hustles than hobbies. Hobbies are, by definition, done out of joy and love rather than monetary gain. I can’t imagine a philatelist or mycophagist doing what they love with the explicit intent to make money (stamp collector and mushroom hunter, respectively – thought I’d throw some fancy fun words into this). 

As I’ve mentioned in past essays, and in my book, The Art of Creative Rebellion, I encourage my design team to do things that are purely creative (and not design) and are exclusively for themselves, whether it’s ceramics or yoga or writing music. Or meditation, which is by definition, actively doing nothing.

Within my team, during this time of working from home, we’ve implemented a noon to 1:00 no-meeting policy so that people can take a break from Zoom and eat lunch, go for a walk, or again, do nothing. 

Doing nothing is hard for me. I find myself either trying to be productive or being distracted by Instagram or any number of social platforms. But I try to sit outside for 10 minutes, stare at the landscape, breathe some fresh air and…

ACTIVELY. DO. NOTHING.

These are unusual times. We are forced to be home with our loved ones 24/7. And most importantly with ourselves. Take advantage of this time. 

And with that, I’ll take my own advice and stop this essay here to take a break. 

John

What I’m reading:

Lifespan: Why We Age – and Why We Don’t Have To – a beautifully written non-fiction, science book by David A. Sinclair with the (seemingly) radical theory that aging is unnecessary and is, in fact, a disease. A disease that can be cured. This isn’t pseudo-science but a passionate clarion call by a professor of genetics at Harvard Medical School to consider a new way to approach living and perhaps, not dying.

What I’m listening to:

It Is What It Is – This amazing album by the brilliant vocalist-bass player Thundercat (Steve Bruner) has been on heavy rotation. We were fortunate enough to see him play live at The Wiltern in March before the COVID-19 pandemic hit and he was on fire, as usual. Thunder got us tickets to the show as he’s close to my wife (her son, Austin, was his best friend) and he gave her a shout-out during the concert. It’s a fun album – many of his songs rotate around his love of his cat but also filled with sorrow over the loss of his friends Mac Miller and Austin Peralta. It’s his best record so far. Check it out.

3.15.20 – Childish Gambino’s (Donald Glover) beautiful album has obscure song titles that are like time codes (ala “19.10” and “47.48” etc) but his voice is on full display, at times sounding like Prince at his falsetto best or dark and dirge-like. This multi-hyphenate talent is truly a creative rebel: he can act, do stand-up, write, dance and sing. 

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