Permission to Pause: Normalizing Slow Living

Recently, I had a couple of days when I was not productive.

So instead of working, I spent A LOT of time watching soccer (or, depending on where you live, football).

I watched several matches.

But I didn’t feel guilty doing so, nor was I apologetic or felt lazy.

Unproductive?

Yes. (If I were playing, that would be a different story 😉).

I like how Marie Kondo, author of The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing, puts it when she is helping people tidy up: she asks, does the item they don’t know what to do with spark joy?

Does watching soccer spark joy in me?

Yes.

But let’s put things into perspective.

The typical soccer game lasts less than two hours.

And because I live in Houston and watch soccer out of England, the games are on six hours earlier.

As a solopreneur, I don’t take days off.

Seriously.

I love what I do, I work every day.

Some days, I work a lot, but on other days, not so much.

When there’s a match I want to watch, I put it on my schedule and work around it (much to my coach’s chagrin! 😉).

I’ll wait if I have a conflict, and the game will be available on demand, except for Man City games. I watch those live.

My point is you WILL have days when you just don’t feel like doing anything.

You have to be okay with that. Beating yourself up over it serves no purpose.

But…this should happen occasionally. It should NOT be a regular occurrence.