The first day in Vipassana meditation is kind of cool. I mean, you don’t actually meditate the whole time. But, you’re really excited to start receiving the effects of meditation.
Then, day two:
It’s work. It’s HARD work.
It’s really tedious, hard work.
But, if you really want to experience the peace, the stillness, the transcendence of mediation, you have to keep with it.
Life Of Meditation… or Whatever
So, too, with starting your own business or any other “thing” you’re trying to do. You have to put the work into it. It doesn’t just come after that first day of thinking how great the affects will be.
I remember pacing around the garden during a break. I felt like I was in a daze. I was up at 4:30am and had been meditating for… Oh, forever I think.
But, a really good idea came into my head. Then another. Then another. Then, before I knew it, I couldn’t keep track of them all. I had been struggling to write anything about the Vision Quest the whole time I was on the road. Now, in the middle of a field with no pencil, paper, or keyboard, I’m flooded with every aspect of creativity I had been desiring.
Because the work was put it. For me, it was the meditation.
What is your work?
If you’re reading these posts, you’re looking for something. What is the work you have to put in to get there?
I sat for hours and hours and hours. I went with tea and fruit for dinner for more than a week. I was up at 4:30am and in bed at 9:30pm. My back ached. My knees hurt. My legs and feet were definitely getting more sleep than I was. My head hurt every… single… time… I focussed on the breath… again.
Do you want to be a writer? Write. Write. Write, again.
Do you want to be an entrepreneur? Hustle. Hustle. Hustle again.
Do you want to be a teacher? Teach. Teach. Teach, again.
Do you want to be a musician? Play. Play. Play, again.
Do you want to be enlightened? Do it again.
Hey wait! Why is that last one so vague?
Because, sometimes, life is vague.
Sometimes, life is hard.
Still, do the work.
Benefits
Let me tell you a little secret: the benefits of doing the work are amazing! They go way beyond your expectations. And once you’re in that zone of benefit, it’s really hard to get out.
Sometimes, the benefits won’t show up immediately.
Sometimes, you don’t see the benefits until you’re randomly walking around a field.
I’ll keep this short. You’ve got work to do…
You’ve already heard this from me, but what about when you don’t *know* what you want to be? What is the thing to do, rinse, repeat, in that case?? I feel paralyzed.
This is such a hard question, because the answer really depends on you. I’m still not sure I’m doing exactly what I want to be doing. In fact, I realized in Seattle the do, rinse, repeat, that I was doing just wasn’t working.
I think, though, that one of our problems is trying to see the end first, then putting the work in to get there second. But, really, the destination is foggy. So, we work on what’s here and now.
I had tried something. I’m trying something else now. Is there something that feels right – like organizing – that you could focus on, now?
What if you just “be” what you are? …instead of working on some future vision of that?
But right now… nothing feels right. So… I sit and do… nothing? I mean, that’s what I want to do, for now. Clean all the stuff out of my house. Go through years of backlogged pictures. Clean up my computer. Generally organize $hit. thing that is useful for the rest of the world, or brings in any money to support myself. What do I do with that?
As for organizing – that feels great, when I’m doing it. I love it. So does selling donuts at a festival. So does cooking. But the hustle to get those doesn’t. The commitment to having to do them at a certain time at a certain place doesn’t. I have no motivation to make those things happen. I do them when they come to me, but I’m *building* anything. Because what I *want* to do is what I said in the above paragraph. But I don’t feel good about that, proud of it. Doesn’t feel like that’s worthwhile work.
(PS, I didn’t get notified or anything that you responded here! Is that a setting I missed?)
Yeah! Totally do nothing. But, let’s face it, you’re going to do something. You’ll go rock climbing or acro or insert other thing. If you want to do nothing, really do nothing. Give yourself some space to figure out what feels right – and don’t fill that space with a bunch of little to-dos, meetings, phone calls, emails, TV shows, books.
Let that cleaning out the old stuff that you’re doing really sink into being a metaphor for all your internal stuff, too.
I just noticed that in at least two places in my last comment, the negative is missing, so the sentences don’t read correctly. The fact that somehow the negatives went missing feels like some grand metaphor, but I can’t quite put it into words. 🙂
Anyways, no, not nothing. I want to read and clean and climb and build… ME. Just don’t feel allowed in this world of go go go to not be building business.
Not having a to do list will be hard – WHAT IF I FORGET SOMETHING? 😀 – but probably a good practice to attempt.
A. You already read and clean and climb. That’s not doing nothing. That’s completing to-do list items. So is “working on me.” That’s a to-do list items. Check out this post about letting purpose find you.
B. The point to no to-do list is not trying to remember all your to-do’s without writing them down. The point is to not give yourself “somethings” that you might forget. Just do nothing.