Here in America, we live in live in a culture that is obsessed with doing. The forty (Fifty? Sixty? Eighty?) hour workweek. The two weeks of “vacation”. When we meet strangers, one of the first questions asked is “What do you do?”. When we mention that we have a vacation coming, we are asked “What are you going to do?”. I would argue that our current obsession with having a constant connection to technology is largely driven by the need to always have something to do. But does all of this doing actually make us who we are? Our essence? Our being?
I don’t think so. I think the more we fill our lives with more and more things we have to do, the less and less time we are spending on who we have to be. Being is what happens when you stop doing. Doing, in a life of balance, should driven out of who you have decided to be.
Before you look down at the next task on your list, or answer that call from your coworker, or answer that next email, or compose that next status update for Facebook or Twitter, take a moment to stop what you are doing. Decide first, to simply be.