Doing "Nothing:" The Need for Reflection
Written by Adam Molano
We see it often with our coaching clients: their lives are a whirlwind of activity, and the cycle of "doing" just never seems to end. I would be remiss if I did not admit that I myself struggle with the same issues at times: A huge workload, coupled with family and personal obligations, make the week a total blur. Then, when we have time for ourselves, we fill it with exercise, socializing, texting, and chores. Any other time that is not spent sleeping, we are looking at Facebook or Instagram.
This behavior is actually glorified by our culture. In the workplace, the person that works 80-hour weeks and eats lunch at their desk is seen as a "go-getter," someone that others should try to be like. "Multi-taskers" that can juggle multiple responsibilities at the same time are viewed as being highly efficient people. Even the way most people view fitness is skewed in this direction: the man who spends 20+ hours distance running each week is regarded as supremely fit, much more so than the person who "only" trains for an hour each day (The actual effort put into each hour is not considered, but I digress here).
In a previous blog post, I wrote about the importance of recognizing our truest priorities. This process began with us taking the time to stop what we are doing, and reflect on our behaviors. I am here now to argue that this first step, just taking time to reflect, is one that many of us are too reluctant to do." Writing in the journal Science, researcher Timothy Wilson of the University of Virginia reported that almost no studies had been done on 'simply letting people go off and think.' Wilson conducted 11 experiments with more than 700 people. The results? The majority of participants in the experiments found it unpleasant to be alone in a room with just their thoughts for only 6-15 minutes. In one of Wilson’s experiments, the participants were left alone in a lab room in which they could push a button and shock themselves with an electric shock if they wished. The results were surprising. Even though all participants had previously stated that they would pay money to avoid being shocked with electricity, 67% of men and 25% of women chose to inflict a shock on themselves, rather than just sit there quietly and think.
Wilson assumed that the participants would find it difficult to entertain themselves with their thoughts and would like it. He contends that people may have exhibited mixed signs of boredom and issues controlling their thoughts: 'I think [our] mind is built to engage in the world…So when we don’t give it anything to focus on, it’s kind of hard to know what to do.'"(Read the full article here)
The ability to sit quietly and reflect on our lives is a skill; And just like any other skill, it is something that takes practice to develop. Those that took part in the Whole Life Challenge were asked to spend 10 minutes each day in a state of "mindfulness," which could involve meditation, prayer, or even journaling their thoughts. Many of these folks remarked how difficult it was to do this, even for only 10 minutes. Not surprisingly, though, once this became a natural habit for people, the benefits in the areas of stress-release and overall concentration were undeniable.
In a broader sense, we are at a time of year that seemingly begs for us to take a moment for reflection. For most, the transition from a cold dark Winter to a bright and vibrant Spring brings with it an increase in energy, and perhaps a small nudge toward making some positive changes in our lives. For some folks, the conclusion of the yearly CrossFit Open competition has brought us to a transitional period between training for last year and training for next year. Regardless of the motivation or circumstance, I contend that now is a perfect time to stop what you are doing, sit for a moment, and reflect back on what brought you to where you are now.
There is a framework that is taught in OPEX Life Coaching called "The Four Seasons of Learning." Instead of constantly going from one action to the next, this framework teaches us to work in a cyclical fashion in regards to our life and experiences:
fourseasonsoflearning
After doing something, there is a time for reflecting, where we inventory what it is we learned from our prior action.
We can then take these learnings, and boil them down to concepts, and look for an underlying pattern.
From this understanding, we can then devise a new plan of action, one that takes into account what we learned from our past experience
With a new plan of action, we can then go forward into actually doing, or turning our plans into something real
The importance here, to me, is this: Without reflection, we can never truly understand why we do what we do, or why our actions have the consequences that they do. Without this understanding, there is no basis from which to plan our next actions. If we do not have at least some semblance of a plan for ourselves, then what are we doing?
In the context of our daily lives, incorporating this can be as simple as taking 10 minutes at the end of the day to sit quietly, and let our subconscious minds piece together the important aspects from the day. In the context of training, this can mean that we periodically give ourselves a break, and use this time to get a sense of where we want to go next. Reflect on our progress; conceptualize what it means to us; devise a plan for the next year, or several months; then, when we feel recharged, go out and DO it.Do not mistake constantly moving with being productive. Practice the ability to do nothing. It is only when we are comfortable with ourselves at rest that we can truly be effective when in motion.
Adam Molano is the Co-Founder and Training Director at Full Range Fitness (home of Full Range CrossFit), in Providence, RI. He is an OPEX CCP Coach, CrossFit Level (CF-L1), Pendlay Barbell Levels 1&2, and a Certified Sports Nutritionist by the International Society of Sports Nutrition (C-ISSN). He moderates the blog for Full Range CrossFit (www.fullrangecrossfit.com), and can be reached at adam@fullrangecrossfit.com