Everyone knows the feeling: you’re on holiday, you’ve been looking forward to it for a long time.
You’ve done your research, you already pinned the best restaurants and loveliest beaches.
Almost everything’s been planned out in advance since you really want to make the most out of it and not regret missing out on the best hotspots.
Then one day, whilst on holiday, my wife looked at me and said: ‘how about you try and sit down for 20 minutes and maybe just.. do nothing?’
Nothing.
I paused and then laughed, thinking it was just a silly question. ‘What do you mean ‘ do nothing?’.
Obviously I thought, I’m not going to waste my time doing nothing, during my precious holiday. I already planned everything out and I have loads of things I still need to be doing and seeing!
But then she told me to really sit with this question and then asked me to answer this: ‘How come it’s so nice to just do nothing?’.
I wasn’t sure if I agreed with the formulation of this question since I didn’t agree doing nothing was particularly ‘nice’. But since she insisted I decided to play along and rephrased the question into: ‘Why is it so important to sometimes do nothing?’.
I finally sat down, at this point she has offered me a pen and paper to jot down any thoughts and whilst I sat there in silence, simply staring at the wall in front of me, is when it happened.
I started noticing things. Small things, details, I hadn’t noticed before in our holiday appartment. A tiny spider web in the corner of the room, a random metallic frame next to the tv, the hotel owner’s cat, scratching its little paws on the matt right outside our door.
That’s when it started to hit me that maybe by doing nothing, an opportunity arises to see and realize new things.
I took the pen and started drawing. A tree, an apple and a dumbbell.
Hear me out.
Imagine sitting by a tree, one you’re familiar with and often sit close to when you’re busy working. But in all seriousness of the job that consumes any other thoughts, you never realize how many apples were hanging on the tree.
But in one moment of ‘nothingness’, your eyes start to wander and that’s when you finally see the apples.
Seeing a juicy apple might want you to pick the freshest one, thus taking a bite.
The taste of the apple could lead you to realize how good apples taste, and how eating healthy foods is of importance.
Not only healthy foods is beneficial for your health but also physical activity (hence the dumbbell ;)
My point isn’t to to say that by doing nothing you would get encouraged to do sports.
My takeaway is that doing nothing could help you identify new things and offer you new insights.
Which brings us to the main principle of it all. What can we remove from holiday planning? Maybe try whilst planning the best holiday to include some days off, and just see where the wind takes you! Who knows maybe the best holiday memory will be the most spontaneous one.
I looked over to my wife and thanked her (once again) for this wisdom, I proudly showed her my drawings, and decided to sit there for a while, and do nothing.
