My friend Sherrie‘s one talented lady.
Calligrapher, teacher (check out her amazing workshop coming up this summer at Ghost Ranch), writer, artist, fellow artrepreneur.
She’s also pretty smart.
In a recent email exchange, I shared with her that my Retreat was wonderful, but not at all in the ways I expected. And that made it honestly kind of hard.
Her response?
That was a real gift — what you discovered [at the Retreat]. One of the questions I have been following in my work is, “what is the least I can do today” and still feel productive. This is a great change from my, what is the most I can get done. This has curbed my over-achieving, having to get everything done today, habit.
So today (and later tonight), as I was wracked with frustration that I didn’t get done the stuff I really wanted to today, it occurred to me that maybe, just like at the Retreat, the Universe is trying to teach me a lesson.
Maybe what this weekend was supposed to be about was “what is the least I can do today?”
Maybe the longer post-that-simply-isn’t-coming isn’t coming because it isn’t ready to be fully born yet, and maybe that’s okay.
Maybe the business projects can wait.
Maybe even the short list of stuff I’d written down on my “Sunday Triage” list doesn’t really have to get done today.
Maybe I can change my Daily Triage list from 3-5 items down to (gasp!) one item.
Maybe a blog post that simply poses the question “what is the least I can do today and still feel productive?” is enough.
In fact, there will always be some days that are more productive than others. Perhaps tomorrow (or if not tomorrow, another day this week) will feel wildly, thrillingly productive. And that will be lovely.
But maybe every day doesn’t have to be that way in order to be okay.
How might my life be different if I could unhook productivity from self-worth, and truly allow each day to be exactly what it is, and no more?
Perhaps, to follow Joseph Campbell’s lead in the graphic at the top of this post, the theme of this weekend is:
We must be willing to let go of the day we have planned, so as to have the day that is waiting for us.
What do you think? How would your life be different if, instead of “What’s the most I can do today?” you asked yourself “What’s the least I can do today and still feel productive?”
PS — Pssst! Know someone who might benefit from seeing this today? Pass it on!
