"Shun idleness," said Voltaire, "it is a rust that attaches itself to the most brilliant metals."
With a full-time job, two part-time jobs and a license for a third, seven active children, grandchildren, friends, hobbies, church responsibilities, aging parents, a home with a yard, and basketball one night a week, it seems odd to talk about idleness.
I doubt that any of us are watching TV ten hours a day and sleeping until noon, but idleness may be a big problem nevertheless. Mark Spitz won seven swimming Olympic gold medals. Somebody finished second in all those races, and someone finished eighth. The difference between first and second is the difference I see between where we are and where we could be, and that difference is idleness.
We each have several wasted moments each day, sitting in waiting rooms, sitting in traffic, whatever. I’m not saying not to have leisure, to never rest, but like Jim Rohn says, make rest a necessity, not a goal. Find some way to be more active and more productive in those idle moments to close the gap between winning and finishing somewhere else.
John,
I agree that idleness gets us nowhere but I wanted to add my two cents about certain kinds of "daydreaming" that look like idleness but aren't at all.
Since you included a photo of Mark Spitz, I'll use the athletic analogy. Many athletes train mentally by visualizing themselves winning races. They don’t plot and plan how to do it, they just see themselves doing it while they're lying on the couch, eyes closed. Such training may actually be more effective than physical training because it can be done anywhere, anytime and there’s no physical limitation to it.
I got so inspired by this, I wrote a post about it myself! I think people tend to discount the time they spend "just thinking about stuff," which I don't think is wasted time at all.
Posted by: Claire Tompkins | May 8, 2006 12:57 PM | Permalink to Comment