Work vs Leisure – Why You Can’t Stop Working

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Do you feel if you’re not working, progressing, doing something all the time, you’re wasting your time?

Lou Redmond, a gifted meditation teacher on Insight Timer just sent out an email that triggered me.

Lou loves what he does. He develops workshops, coaches clients, does retreats and puts incredible courses online. We connected a while back and recorded a meditation for the Unhustle Community “How to Go from Doing to Being.”

Lou shared his struggle with having a hard time taking a break: “Because I love what I do, I rather be working,” blaming dopamine, attention, money, social approval.

But it goes deeper than that.

According to the research by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, the Godfather of FLOW, there’s a paradox between work and leisure.

Here’s why it’s hard for you to stop working.

• The more time you spend in flow, the better your overall quality of experience

• People who are in flow, report feeling “strong”, “active”, “creative”, “concentrated” and “motivated.”

• People report on average spending 64% of the time in flow at work and only 20% during leisure. This is the paradox of work.

People say they’d rather not be working, but they are happier at work.

Thanks to social media, TV and city living, our leisure time tends to be less challenging and therefore we are not in flow. Our leisure time is broken.

When in flow, people report feeling happier, more cheerful, more active, more creative and satisfied.

We need better leisure.

Instead of relaxing and resting on the couch with Netflix, what demanding and challenging activities can you come up with that will put you in flow?

Doing something challenging will detach you from work and lower your stress level.

“it is in the improvident use of leisure, I suspect, that the greatest wastes of American life occur.” Robert Park

We can’t afford to continue to waste our free time.

Hobbies that demand skills and inner discipline offer a path to re-creation.

As for Lou, I sent him this explanation and he responded right away.

“That makes a lot of sense. Keep inspiring us to Unhustle.”

He’s off to enjoy something challenging in the sun in Guatemala.

The more time you spend in flow – at work and in leisure, the higher your well-being and fulfillment from living.

It’s as simple as that.

Join like-minds on a mission to live well, now.