Not Feeling Like "I Should Be Doing Something Else"
June 19, 2007
I ran across this quote recently, at Ocean Without End, and it's really stuck with me:
"Writing is the only thing that, when I do it, I don't feel I should be doing something else." ~ Gloria Steinem
For me, the thing that when I do it, I don't feel like I should be doing something else, is walking while listening to a book. It doesn't work just walking - then my brain is active, and I start worrying about tasks that I should be working on. And it doesn't always work just reading (unless I'm in bed, ready to go to sleep). But if I'm out walking, striding along getting good exercise, and my mind if taken up by the audio version of a good book, then I am completely in the moment.
This is pretty much the only time all day that I don't stress about the other things that I'm not working on (whether they are paying work or working on my blog). Something about the combination of doing something to help me get in shape, and being outside in the California air, and being immersed in a story, that works for me. It captures my full being (at least most of the time).
What about you? What are the things that you do that, when you're doing them, you don't feel like you should be doing something else?
© 2009 by Jennifer Robinson of Jen Robinson's Book Page. All rights reserved.