Experimenting with letting it be easy
I’ve been engaging in an experiment of Letting it be Easy (the Project Simplify mantra). I say it alot–other people remind me of it on occasion.
It means different things to different people. It means different things to me at different times.
You know how even when you have a major break through in something and you are convinced that everything will be different from here on out… and yet certain things are mysteriously unchanged?
Like that little annoying habit of getting super irritated when the barista doesn’t bother to ask you your milk preference and uses non-fat instead of whole milk and you really despise the taste of non-fat milk and you think, “why couldn’t they have just asked?!?” (Do I digress?)
The point I’m trying to make is that we have certain challenges to overcome and while we grow and make progress in our lives, there are always new variations of old issues that we are faced with in ever new angles and new depths.
And so it is with my mantra, Let it be Easy.
Up until now, the mantra has been more of a reactionary reminder. When an article or speech is feeling thorny, difficult and chunky, remembering to let it be easy helps me keep things in perspective, consider whether right then is the best time to be working on that particular project etc.
Or I’ve used the mantra as an inspiration to follow the path of least resistance.
Over the last several years, for example, I’ve tried replacing the pen and journal with typing for my morning writing. So many ideas, blog posts, brainstorms come out of that morning writing session that I’ve often thought that typing directly into the laptop would save all kinds of time subsequently spent transcribing.
However… the truth of the matter is that I love the act of handwriting, the freedom to write big or small, the trail of ink that follows the tip of the pen on paper, the easy portability of the journal, the vague musings of why I often close the loop on a y at the end of a word but not the g, and why the lower case f has changed over the last year. Not to mention that I love beginning the writing session by opening a handmade journal decorated by yours truly.
Which is all to say, that the flow of my mental process is easier when I handwrite–even if I have to go back and transcribe.
Those are just two situations in which I’ve been “letting it be easy”:
- to facilitate a situation
- inspiration to follow the path of least resistance
In the last month or so, I’ve been experimenting with a much more global meaning of Let it be Easy: Being (instead of Doing).
Being of the typical modern day go go go culture, I am guilty with packing too much into my days. It’s all stuff that fun, or mostly fun–I’ve long weeded out the stuff that I don’t enjoy being engaged in–and yet, it’s mostly DO oriented.
I’m getting a sense that one of the reasons for Doing is a fear that things will fall apart if I don’t keep Doing–will they?!
What if… what it… I let go of the DO race and lived the culture of Being?!?! What if I didn’t plan our my days except for the appointments that must be scheduled? What if I didn’t work when not inspired? What if “home base” was feeling really good and activities that put that in jeopardy were simply relegated to a another and better time?
What would this mean to my business?
How would it be different than how I live now?
to be continued……
