The Fine Art of Doing Nothing
by Alexandra Windsong, February 2, 2009
©2009, Alexandra Windsong, All Rights Reserved.

This past fall, I found myself in the middle of a personal crisis. Things were changing, growing, and expanding. Many of the goals I had set for my life and my business were manifesting. At the same time, new opportunities were presenting themselves and it was becoming challenging to keep on top of it all, to have clarity about which were the right opportunities to pursue and which weren't. And things were happening at a pace that I wasn't entirely comfortable with.

I was starting to notice the warning signs that something wasn't quite right. My life was starting to feel chaotic, a feeling I don't like, and out of control, a feeling I definitely don't like. It was beginning to feel like my life was running me, that these changes and new opportunities were taking on a life of their own and I was merely coming along for the ride. I was having a hard time making decisions about my life and my business, and I wasn't happy.

So I decided to take a vacation, to take a break. I was going to get away from it all and spend some time revisiting both my life and business plans. This was something I had found invaluable in the past, taking the time to clarify my goals, my priorities and my vision for my life. Having a plan and a vision had helped me to achieve a great deal of success in many areas and to stay on track in the past. So my plan for my "vacation" was to re-work my life and business plans. The Universe, on the other hand, had other plans.

And that was my first mistake. My vacation was going to be a "working" vacation, at least in part. Never mind that I hadn't had a real vacation in a very long time. You know, an actual va-ca-tion, time where you don't work at all, where you just relax, kick back, and enjoy yourself. A time out, to renew your body, mind and spirit. But it was okay, I rationalized. I needed to re-work my life vision, it was important. And I was still going to get a break because I wasn't going to work on anything other than my life and business plans. I wasn't going to answer business email, work on the website, or any of the numerous tasks I could still do while I was away from the office. And I was only taking my computer along to work on my business and life goals. Yeah right. A nice little story to tell myself to be sure, but deep down I knew better.

And sure enough, the very first night, within hours of arriving at the cabin, I was trying to access the internet to check my email. You saw that coming didn't you? And that's when the Universe stepped in. While trying to access the internet, my computer just shut down.

Hmmm, not good.

But without thinking much of it, computers do sometimes freeze up and do odd things, I went ahead and tried to restart it. Much to my horror, each time I tried to reboot, I got an error message. One I had never seen before. And nothing I tried to get my computer up and running again worked. It wouldn't even boot up in safe mood.

Uh oh. Really not good.

Not knowing how to solve the problem and fearful of perhaps wiping the hard drive if I did the wrong thing, I gave up and shut the computer down, and decided to deal with it later. And that was my first breakthrough.

In the past, I would have panicked. I would have felt the need to do something about this situation immediately. Even if it was impossible to do something about the situation right then and there, I would have stressed and worried over it all night long and continued to try and fix the problem. Instead, I decided to leave it alone until the next day when I would try and find a place that could either fix the problem, or at the very least recover my files from the hard drive. Whatever the problem was, there was going to be a solution, and it didn't have to be addressed right that moment. Whoa, what a breakthrough! So I put the computer away and spent the rest of the evening relaxing by the fire with a book.

The next day, I had an even bigger breakthrough. I decided to do nothing at all about the computer, at least for now. It could wait. I could live without it for a week. I was on vacation after all. I was comfortable with the realization that whether I took the computer  to a repair shop that  day or a week later, it wasn't going to change the outcome. And besides, I knew the truth, if I got the computer fixed that day, I was going to try and work on more than just my life and business plans. I was going to try and get caught up on a lot of other work stuff I needed to do. And now, I couldn't. As for my life and business plans, I could work on those the old fashioned way, with pen and paper if need be.

So now I was back to the original "plan" for my vacation, to revisit my life and business plans and try to relax a little too if I could fit that in, but I wasn't going to work. And that's exactly what happened.

Well, not quite.

As I said, the Universe had other plans. I prefer to type rather than use pen and paper for a variety of reasons. Without my computer, I wasn't in any hurry to start writing down my goals, my priorities, etc. So I didn't. Instead, I spent the first full day of my vacation eating, sleeping, reading, and just relaxing. And that is exactly how I spent the rest of my vacation -- eating, sleeping, reading, taking walks with my dog, and just hanging out in the hot tub. I didn't think about any of the choices I had to make, the changes that were happening in my life, or what I thought I should be doing. I let it all go and thought about -- nothing. And the most miraculous thing happened . . . .

When I came home from that vacation, I was crystal clear about what I wanted, where I wanted to go, what changes I needed to make, what opportunities I should and shouldn't pursue, and most importantly, what was right for me.  Crystal, clear, clarity. All from doing nothing.

Not only was I clear in what was the right course of action for me to take, it became clear to me that it wasn't my life and business plans that needed to be tweaked, it was me. My life and business plans, goals and objectives were still aligned with my life vision. However, when you are constantly 'in motion' whether that be physically, mentally or emotionally, you can get off center, and loose sight of your priorities and your life vision even if it's staring you in the face -- my life vision and my business goals and objectives hang over my desk where I can see them every day. It didn't matter. I had lost my center and the ability to clearly and effectively make decisions and choices that were aligned with my life vision. I was allowing myself to be pulled in other directions by the wants, needs, goals and objectives of others. After my 'time out', I was back on track, able to stay centered and focused on what was important for my mental, emotional and spiritual well-being and the success of my life vision.

While working on a life and/or business plan can be an invaluable tool, and can help us to stay focused and to manifest our goals and objectives, sometimes, we just need to stop and do nothing, to allow ourselves time to return our center. Whether we take a vacation, or practice daily meditation, we need to take the time to get away from all the things that are trying to pull us in a million different directions all at once, including our own thoughts.

As to that computer problem. Well, it seems "doing nothing" worked there as well. The last night of my vacation, I was lying in bed and suddenly the answer just popped into my head. When I got home the next day, I pulled out the manual, followed a few simple steps, and fixed the problem myself, saving me the cost of taking it to someone else. Had I continued to try and fix the problem myself when my mind wasn't clear and I was stressed and anxious, I could have very easily made the situation worse and done something to the computer that was irreversible such as wiping the hard drive. Instead, doing nothing initially about the problem, allowed time for my thoughts to settle, for my mind to work the problem out on it's own, in it's own time. In this case the answer was how to solve the problem myself. The answer could have just as easily have been to take it to someone else. Either way, doing nothing allowed me the opportunity to gain clarity about how best to proceed in order to minimize my damages.

Now three months later, it is time to revisit my life and business plans, to tweak them to fit my changing vision and goals. And I will, but not while I'm on vacation.

For more information about Alexandra Windsong, click here.

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