For the longest time, I felt like being the best version of myself meant DOING more of the right things.
I always had this mental list going of what I needed to add to my life:
Carve out more time for art.
Go for more walks outside.
Spend more mornings in my gratitude journal.
And so on and so forth.
The list of ALL THE THINGS I needed to do more of continued to build, but in my mind I doubted how any of them I could squeeze into a life and a daily schedule that already felt full of things TO DO.
Finally, though, I made a pretty simple realization that changed my approach to living more vibrantly:
Living a more vibrant life is as much about the UN-doing as it is about the doing.
“Living a more vibrant life is as much about the UN-doing as it is about the doing.”
It’s less about adding more items to our already crammed schedules and instead taking a critical look at what we can subtract.
Carving out more time for art becomes more feasible when it’s actually just spending less time binge-watching TV.
Going for more walks outside becomes more feasible when it’s actually just spending fewer days eating lunch at my desk watching clips on YouTube (yes, I really do that most days 🙄.)
Spending more mornings in my gratitude journal becomes more feasible when it means spending less mornings scrolling through news updates on Twitter.
We think our schedules are maxed out when in fact they are ripe with opportunities to do more of what lights us up — IF that is we’re willing to replace the things that give us empty entertainment or instant gratification for the things that will actually move the needle toward a more vibrant, fulfilling life.
So my challenge for you this week is to ask yourself: What in your daily life is it time to UNDO?
What can you subtract in order to do more of those things you’ve been wishing you could just fit in?
Maybe this week you consider making a To Do List an then making a To “Undo” List. 😉
It’s never easy to shift habits or schedules that have been on auto-pilot for so long, but on the other side of those difficult shifts is usually a healthier, happier existence.
Wishing you a productive week of un-doing!
