Filling Up (Part 2)

On the 23^rd I wrote about talking about ideas you are passionate about with the people you love and I also mentioned something else that was on my mind that night. “Ideas in the wilderness,” as I called it.

This was on my mind that day because one of the podcast episodes I was listening to on my drive home was another Tim Ferriss podcast where he was talking to Doris Kearns Goodwin. I highly recommend the episode, but for those who are unaware, Goodwin is a biographer and historian and has published biographies on Abraham Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt, Franklin Roosevelt, and Lyndon Johnson.

She is incredibly knowledgeable about each of them, and something she mentioned was that each of these men did something very important to allow them to continue through trial-filled times. They all took time to relax and replenish their energy.

She talks about how Abraham Lincoln made it a point to go to the theater many, many times during his presidency, Teddy Roosevelt took 2 hours every afternoon to play some sort of games, Franklin Roosevelt had a cocktail hour every evening. A time that he wouldn’t allow anyone to talk about the war.

They all had times that they were able to just get away from their work and relax. Teddy Roosevelt at the height of the coal strike wrote a letter to the librarian of Congress saying –

“It’s been such a delight to drop everything useful, everything related to my duty, particularly the coal strike, and spend the afternoon reading about the relationships between Assyria and Egypt, which could not possibly do me any good, but in which I reveled accordingly”

I think we hear some of these stories and could be tempted to say that they were wasting time. Truly, if we saw a president in today’s day and age playing sports for two hours every day, the American population would lose their mind with accusations of “not doing work” or “not caring about the bigger issues of the country,” etc.

However, I have heard so many stories of very successful people who have had very similar practices to this. So many that I think it is impossible to dismiss it as just a personality thing.

I want to bring another thought to this as well. Something that is a different concept, but still drives home the idea I’m thinking about.

If you read the Bible and look at some of the most important people God used, you will find a commonality between them; they all had situations in what I would call the “wilderness.” Times where they were separated from others and/or in places that seemed really different from where their goals were.

Moses (Exodus 2 and Acts 7), Elijah (1^st Kings 15), David (1^st Samuel 24), John the Baptist (Luke 3). Even Jesus (Matthew 4).

All of this influences me to believe that time away from our “work” or time where we are doing things seemingly unrelated to our goals is often the time that recharges us most and in turn helps us to be more creative in the times that we are working toward those goals.

I know there are probably dozens of books on this concept, but it is something that I am reminded of this Christmas. It is okay to take time away from work. It is okay to take a day and do something that has nothing to do with your goals. If you don’t have these days, it is so much easier to get burnt out, and honestly, I think these days are what help to create the best ideas.

I think of those movies where someone is working on an investigative case or something, and they work on it all day, all night, never stopping. Then, they move on and do something different and someone just says a word or phrase that gives them an idea to solve the case! Something totally unrelated is what gives the answer to their problem.

There is, of course, a balance to this and letting laziness control your life, but only you can decide what each one looks like.

Get your rest. Get challenged in the wilderness. Get your adventure hat on. Get that comedy night. Do something to take a break from what you’re working on, and come back stronger than ever.

May you have productive days accomplishing everything and productive days doing nothing!

Merry Christmas!