When’s the last time you saw a bunch of kids running around unsupervised?
I was talking with a friend of mine who has an 8-year old daughter, and she was telling me about how she engineers opportunities for her daughter to practice being independent.
Sending her around the corner to buy butter, or walking to a friend’s house alone.
You know, micro-adulting.
It made me realize just how much life has changed since I was that age.
When I was a kid, we would regularly jump on our bikes and ride miles away – completely untrackable for hours.
Now, granted – there was probably some whisper network of Moms grape-vining information on our whereabouts …
But no cell phone. Maybe like, $3.75 cash in my pocket to buy candy from Alton’s General Store down the road.
No way to reach anybody unless I showed up at a friend’s house, knocked on the door, and asked if they were home.
The majority of our free time was totally unstructured. And we were bored A LOT.
Now it seems like everyone (including kids) are not only constantly accessible…
But also insanely overscheduled with structured activities.
I’m just as guilty of it myself!
Ask anyone who knows me, and they’ll tell you I’m a VERY productive person.
I can get more done in 3 hours than most people do in 3 days.
I mean, if you want to get a peek inside my brain (gird your loins)…
This is my daily planner:
Obviously there’s A LOT in there.
And you’ll see that every hour of the day has been assigned a purpose.
A specific outcome.
But you know what you don’t see?
Time to be bored.
Time to just think.
Time to be inaccessible.
Time to putter around without purpose.
Time that isn’t tied to a specific outcome.
Even my “fun” blocks have a to-do list of stuff to ‘accomplish’ in my free time. 😬
But I’m realizing more and more that we are not supposed to live this way.
We’re not meant to be constantly accessible – at least not by anyone who doesn’t live with us.
Even then, we’re supposed to have stretches of solitude. To take off on our bikes and be unreachable for hours at a time.
We’re SUPPOSED to be bored!
It’s how our brain sees things that we usually ignore because we haven’t slowed down enough to actually notice what’s going on around us.
When’s the last time you were bored?
When’s the last time you stared at the sky?
Or puttered around, just noticing what’s around you, and thinking about things that aren’t engineered to be productive?
As I get older, my idea of success changes.
It used to be about the freedom to work from wherever I wanted, whenever I wanted.
Or be seen as someone of influence in my field.
Or be widely known for producing huge results for my clients.
But really, the true measure of success is a blank calendar.
Wide open days to think, and wonder, and do whatever you feel like in the moment.
But even if that's not something that's possible every day...
We need to leave room for serendipity sometimes.
For unexpected moments of fun and joy to show up in your day – and then to actually have the time and energy to embrace it.
As you move through these last few weeks of the year, and all the chaos of the holiday season swirls around you…
I encourage you to make time… for unstructured time.
Time to be inaccessible, and sink into long moments of solitude.
Time to let your mind wander without purpose.
Or notice little details of the world around you that often go unseen in our endless pursuit of productivity.
Time to wonder. To leave room for serendipity.
And maybe even be a little bored. 🙂
No business lesson today.
Just a gentle reminder to make sure you’re not so busy building your dream life, that you forget to live it along the way.
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