“The time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time.” ~ Bertrand Russell
I did nothing yesterday. Well, that’s not entirely true, I did do something, though nothing of significance and meaning. I did some yard work until the line in my weed eater became jammed (Grrr!). Otherwise, I sat on the porch and stared at the river, enjoying the sights and the warm summer breeze. It was a gorgeous day, and there I sat all afternoon and evening, seemingly doing nothing. I say seemingly because I did do one thing. I thought. I thought about summertime, I thought about what I was going to do today. Of course, I thought about my art and where I am going with it (I haven’t a clue). But mostly I thought about being lazy and its importance when it comes to creativity.
There are those people who seem to need to be busy all the time. I am not one of them. I often feel lazy compared to those around me. Everyone always seems busy scurrying around doing this and that. There are periods when I’m like that. But there are just as many periods when I have nothing to do, or more accurately nothing I need to do at that moment. I will fix the weed eater later. Update my website? I’ll get around to it sometime. For now, I am content to sit and think. It’s one of the perks (and admittedly curses) of being a professional artist. I have no one to answer to except myself.
There was a time not so long ago when such a day would have left me feeling frustrated and depressed. Nothing accomplished today, I would have thought. Certainly, there was something productive I could have done. In the Western world, we are taught at a young age that we should always be busy and productive. “Idle hands are the devil’s playthings,” we were told. While that may hold more than a kernel of truth for children (I can think of many instances when boredom led to mischief), as adults we do ourselves a great disservice to believing in the virtuousness of work. Work and productivity are important, but equally so is time for rest and silence. Sitting on the porch is not an idle activity. As David Ulrich states in his book The Widening Stream: The Seven Stages of Creativity, resting “Is a highly necessary means of incubation, of reflection, of allowing the process to find its own shape and momentum, and of giving room for the unexpected insight and discovery.”
Boredom is a funny thing. We often complain of being too busy and the associated stress, yet when we have time on our hands we experience a different kind of anxiety. Boredom is uncomfortable for most, it’s a feeling of unease. We feel guilty for being idle, believing there is something we should be doing and we are wasting time. Yet, when we learn to embrace silence and introspection the time becomes anything but wasted. Most of my creative ideas are born of those moments. It’s why during the busy summer months I accomplish little creatively. There is little space or time for reflection and the discovery of new ideas. Solitude and silence are lacking. It’s one of the reasons I enjoy the winter months. Aside from my love of the winter aesthetic, it is the season for introspection and, hopefully, discovery.
At some point, however, all this thought needs to be put into action. Thinking is not the same as doing. I confess that some of my “lazy moments” are nothing more than procrastination. I am a chronic procrastinator. I recently read an article in which the author defined procrastination as the avoidance of unwanted emotions. So true. I endlessly put off doing things that I know will cause me moments of frustration and anxiety. Struggling with writing an article causes frustration so I procrastinate. So does working on a new presentation. This modest blog post has taken me the better part of a month to write simply because I keep putting it off. Of course, the absence of deadlines makes procrastination possible, hence one of the curses of being a full-time artist. Ultimately it boils down to self-discipline. Moments of silence and reflection must be balanced with periods of production. Idle time is wasted time if nothing ever comes of it. Action and inaction are the yin and yang of creativity.
Now if you’ll excuse me, it’s time to sit on the porch some more.
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