Yeah, yeah, we’ve all heard it. Be calm, meditate, stop at least once a day… But why, really? To remember what we’ve done? Maybe. To take a moment and reflect? Maybe. To stay sane? I wouldn’t go that far.
Or would I? I, personally, have been through a rough week, which lead to skipping last week totally in this series of thinking weekly. And was it because of the “lack of time”? Nah. I’d be lying to myself. I just wasn’t able to concentrate on anything else but school. This brought an important feature of calmness to my attention. You can be doing the best things, the things that you love, you could be doing anything, but if it is taking all of your time, well, then it is unlikely you will feel complete. Unless you are a person that has interest solely in one thing. Which, I believe, is neither possible nor desired.
This tunnel vision focus, can be very beneficial if there is a lot of work to be done, but possibly detrimental if the work to be done needs creativity, “out of the box” solution, or something similar, requiring these parts of intelligence. Nevertheless it is a part of our work culture. I can’t help but wonder how many people are trapped in a workplace not getting to the things they love. And looking at the suicide rate in Japan, I fear it is way higher. And that the trapped feeling only gets worse with time.
So, if the work focus/pressure seems to have no clear end I’d recommend to create one. Even if only to keep an open mind. But also to keep the mind.