A friend suggested this thought to me in a recent chat, “Imagine you wake up one day and there is no battle against the day, just a smile.”
What a foreign thought. What would I do with such a day? I close my eyes and I try to think about what I would do, what it would look like and ….nothing. What is proposed here is not about time off, to have a minute, a day, a week of just being. I know how to do that. Show me a beach and I will find the elusive off-switch.
What is being suggested is a shift in construct, to live in a different reality. To live in a reality where I don’t have to fight for what I want, to fight to exist, but to live in a world where ease is an option. I know, I know…I know I propose to you that ease is an option. I know I suggest we only struggle because it is habitual and we are conditioned to think that is the way it is supposed to be. Just because I understand there is an alternative construct possible, it does not mean that I am great at practicing it myself. The learning curve hits me just as hard.
I remember an interview in Lucky Peach with David Chang in which he talked about what a perfect day would be. Chang describes making the rounds at each one of his restaurants, checking in on the kitchen, the walk-in, the reservation books and seeing that all the prep cooks, chefs, front of house staff are on top of it, doing their jobs correctly and accurately. An easy lunch with some of his crew then working on the line for a little while, expediting dinner service, and having everything run so smoothly he can leave by 10 p.m. to have a beer with his girlfriend. A perfect day for Chang is a day without any drama, incidents, emergencies and must-meet deadlines.
Is that what a day without battle looks like? One in which all the mechanisms are in place and together they function like the well-oiled machine they are supposed to be: gently, effortlessly pushing your agenda forward, little by little.
The following morning, Seth Godin posts about the narratives we tell ourselves. Naturally, Godin correlates the concept to marketing terms, as appropriate for his subject matter. Never the less, the idea is the same; you live the narrative you tell yourself
Do I live my days feeling like I need to get up and fight it out because that is the story I’ve been telling? What if I tell myself a different story? What if all I have to do is show up? All I have to do is show up and shine and the world will greet me with love, kindness and abundance. All the dots will connect themselves in the most amazing way possible, everyone says yes to me and all I need to do is show up.
Frankly, as much as I enjoy the fight, I am tired.
Just as an experiment, for the next 30 days, I will tell myself a different story. Instead of needing to get up and fight it out with the day to accomplish my agenda, I will simply show up and shine. What if I am only making it harder for myself with the current narrative? What if everything is already in place and all I have to do is say YES?
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Charlie, this is very insightful, “you live the narrative you tell yourself. How has your experiment gone so far?
Patricia,
The experiment is going really well. It is a constant reminder that it doesn’t have to be a “fight” and I have been in a different mindset this past month since. I think I will write a little bit more about it in the upcoming weeks.