The other day, I lied.
I was HORRIFIED because I like to think of myself as an honest person. But the lie just plopped out of my mouth before I could even think.
While ordering lunch, I told the lady selling Thai food from a truck near my office that I’d just got back from Bangkok (that was true).
“How long were you there?” “Oh, just one night” (that was true).
“Ah, for work?” “Er, yes” (not true – yes, I did some work by the pool while I was there, but I didn’t go for work).
I grabbed my gapao rice and scurried back to the office, wondering to myself, “What happened there? Why did I lie?”
I eventually realized that I felt embarrassed to admit that I was taking time off. Well, it just sounds so extravagant and self-indulgent to fly to Bangkok for just one day for fun, doesn’t it?
Clearly, it was time to reread my favorite book, Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less by Greg McKeown (エッセンシャル思考 最少の時間で成果を最大にする). The author writes,
“What if we stopped celebrating being busy as a measurement of importance? What if instead we celebrated now much time we had spent listening, pondering, meditating, and enjoying time with the most important people in our lives? …I have a vision of people everywhere having the courage to live a life true to themselves instead of the life others expect of them.”
Absolutely!
It wasn’t reeeeeeeeeeeeeally extravagant (look, here I go justifying myself – lol!). Our daughter was on a school trip for a few days, so my husband and I flew overnight from Tokyo to Bangkok on a cheap standby ticket, paid for one night’s accommodation and food, and flew back 26 hours later.
Self-indulgent? Yes, it was. And that’s a Good Thing! I had the opportunity to listen, ponder, meditate, and enjoy time with one of the most important people in my life.
I love the book Essentialism because it shares stories of business people that are so easy to relate to.
There’s the executive who “would spend the whole day rushing from one meeting and conference call to another trying to please everyone and get it all done. His stress went up as the quality of his work went down. …his work became unsatisfying for him and frustrating for the people he was trying so hard to please.”
And then there’s the former CFO. She wrote, “I didn’t start out with the goal of devoting all of myself to my job. It crept in over time. Each year that went by, slight modifications became the new normal. First I spent a half-hour on Sunday organizing my e-mail, to-do list, and calendar to make Monday morning easier. Then I was working a few hours on Sunday, then all day. My boundaries slipped away until work was all that was left.”
Greg McKeown says, “To discern what is truly essential we need space to think, time to look and listen, permission to play, wisdom to sleep, and the discipline to apply highly selective criteria to the choices we make.”
He gives practical steps on how we can explore what’s truly important to us, eliminate the nonessential, and execute on the vital few things with ease.
These steps are interspersed with success stories.
There’s the company founder who gathers all his employees in a room for a day once a month without phones, email, or an agenda to simply think and talk. Wow!
And the CEO who secludes himself for a week twice a year to do nothing but read articles, study technology, and think about the bigger picture.
And a famous individual who said no to an unexpected business opportunity to keep a promise to spend time with his daughter.
How we communicate with ourselves impacts how we communicate with others in business.
We can change the stories we tell ourselves, for example from “I need to work hard to be successful and for people to like me” to “By taking breaks and reflecting, I can be in the best of health and think most clearly and creatively to make my best contribution in society.”
What messages are you telling yourself and others? Are you glorifying busyness? At what cost?
Maybe it’s time to take a break and pick up your copy of Essentialism.
As I’m rereading Essentialism, I’m gradually adjusting my behavior. See what I get up to on a day-to-day basis on Instagram.
Links for you
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