The other day, wife and child went off camping together, leaving me home alone for a few days.
Doesn’t happen very often and it was a Bank Holiday weekend, so the first day, I decided to take a day off.
- No emails.
- No content creation.
- No business social media.
- No planning.
A proper unplug.
So I committed to sitting on my arse, watching TV, and playing video games. Sure, I did a short ride on the indoor trainer, but I enjoy that and technically I was still sitting on my arse, watching TV, so, yeah.
Now, dear reader, you should know that I do all of these things from time to time when I’m not taking a day off, too.
But boy, did it feel different!
And you know what, I hadn’t really noticed how different it feels, because I haven’t committed to taking a day off for a very long time.
So there I was, sitting on my arse, happily watching TV and all of a sudden I notice the guilt.
The Giles Ego Construct pops up and starts telling me:
📦🗣️: That’s enough R&R now. Go do something constructive.
Oh. No, actually, it’s ok. I’m taking a day off, remember? I don’t have to do anything.
[I relax. Smile. Stick another episode on.]
5 minutes later it’s back.
📦🗣️: What the f*** do you think you’re doing?
Oh. No, it's ok. [Relax again.]
📦🗣️: That’s enough now
Oh. [Relax.]
📦🗣️: This is wrong
Oh. [Relax.]
And on and on and on.
There's really only one way to deal with this:
Like interval training for awareness!
In truth, most of the day was like this. It didn’t detract too much, because it was so revealing.
And to be fair I still got to sit on my arse all day, watching TV and playing video games.
But today is not a day off, so I’m writing about it and letting you know that the next time you try it, it might not work out like you want (i.e. blissfully free of the mental noise) but you should probably do it anyway.
Just to see.
💟
Giles
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Giles P Croft
Yup. You wanna see change? You're gonna have to practice!