Do Nothing

LAST YEAR, I was driving to the movies with my son and a small car pulled in front of us. On the back bumper was a sticker with a quote from J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings books: “Not all who wander are lost.” My son read it, considered it, and then said, “You can tell that was written a long time ago because people don’t wander anymore. We have GPS now.”
I thought he was being facetious at the time, but looking back, I realize he was simply speaking the literal truth: We rarely go anywhere now without finding the fastest, most efficient way to reach our destination. It has become easier than ever to be specific about our goals and to reach them quickly. In many ways, we have become a goal-oriented culture. Wandering, or even getting lost, are old-fashioned activities.

Set aside a chunk of time every day to do nothing productive. Take a walk without a destination and without worrying about the number of steps you’ll take. Go outside.

The office can “feel” like a second home to some, and managers make the mistake of saying “We are all family” in order to promote a feeling of camaraderie.

But the office is not your home and your coworkers are not your family. You can be laid off from work on any day, which is not generally true in a family,

I could begin to string together moments of tranquility until, eventually, the balance of my life would tilt away from anxiety and toward refreshment.

There is no denying that having enough money makes things much easier. But throughout all those years of struggle, I thought life with more money would mean happiness and an end to stress. That didn’t happen.

how a slower pace might reduce my stress and support a sense of mindfulness.

The idea is not that everything should be slower, but that not everything needs to be fast.

I started to wonder if I was moving too fast

a human is “the only animal whose desires increase as they are fed; the only animal that is never satisfied.”