Does Productivity Equal Happiness?
The Delicate Art of Bringing Flow to Your Work
Balance is a beautiful thing when you can achieve it. The equilibrium between working and playing, between doing and being, between pushing and allowing is a place that feeds the soul.
I’ve noticed that the days when I am most productive are those when I get an early start. October has put this understanding into very clear focus for me. As winter approaches and the nights are longer, I’ve had challenges getting started in the morning. On the days I have managed to get up and get going before there is even a glimmer of daylight, I have accomplished a lot more. This might not be a huge revelation, but it is worth noting. What I believe is even more remarkable is the sense of satisfaction and wellbeing I feel now with my productivity and achievements.
But this hasn’t always the case.
I’ve always been ambitious, setting goals and working to achieve them. But this alone didn’t always lead to my being content with myself or my circumstances.
A few years ago, when I was still working my 9-to-5, I remember getting up early often. In the fall of 2016, I was working on my first book. I wanted to get it out by the end of the year. I was determined to. Some days, during the early morning hours, I would write additional content that my editor had suggested I include in the book. But on other mornings, the pressures of my job filled my mind. After lying in bed sleepless worrying about the tasks I’d need to complete that day for work, I would get up and map out options for resolving an issue on a big project or attempt to create a presentation I’d be giving a few days later.
In these instances, I was productive. But as I look back on my early morning triumphs, I don’t remember feeling satisfied or content. There was always more to do. I struggled with whether I was working on the right things and whether I had done the things I’d worked on right. An undercurrent of anxiety pervaded my life, and I felt I had to push to do more and be more.
I didn’t feel in balance then.
I can’t honestly tell you that I always feel completely satisfied or content with where I am now, even on days when I have achieved a great deal. What I can say is that I feel a sense of peace and satisfaction more often than I don’t.
So what is different for me today?
It’s not only the idea of getting up early and checking something off my to-do list before most people are awake that brings me to a place of peace. What is different from the work I hammered out in the pre-dawn hours three or four years ago and the work I complete now is how I do the work, the energy with which I infuse it. This is not a conscious thing I’m doing; it’s something that is happening because of who I’ve grown to become.
For a long time, I’ve wanted to believe that life was not meant to be a struggle. And I told myself that this was the case. But even when I was affirming this sentiment, I struggled. So I turned to self-help and spiritual books to find my way and learn how to strive less and allow things to flow more. I read books like As a Man Thinketh, The Four Agreements, and Dancing the Dream: The Seven Sacred Paths of Human Transformation, and I practiced the things of which they spoke. I grew personally. Little by little, my faith in life and in myself increased, and I began to relax more and push less.
It is letting go of the belief that I have to control everything and the notion that I can control anything that is allowing me to have more balance and satisfaction in life. Letting go of the idea that I am the only source of my success has allowed me to be open to seeing different, sometimes easier, ways to accomplish the same goal. Now I can let events that are happening in the background, and which are connected to my objectives, materialize and make things simpler for me to achieve.
As I said, I haven’t mastered this. There are times when I still push, and life doesn’t seem to flow. But I now recognize the connection between surrender and flow. I see the delicate interplay between being and doing, and the need to balance these two forces. This awareness permits me to work consciously to maintain harmony between them. When I am successful, I feel a sense of wellbeing that allows me to wake up from a fairy tale night’s sleep hope-filled, and excited for what the day will hold, despite the many uncertainties I face.
Yes, indeed, balance is a beautiful thing.
