Picture rolls

Remember when we had to wait until the picture rolls were developed before we can see how our photos turned out?

It’s different now. It’s better. It’s instant. The cost of failure has never been cheaper.

Technology is freeing us from menial tasks that we don’t want to do. We have more time available than anyone who has ever come before us.

We don’t have to worry about when our next meal is coming, we don’t have to till the earth, we don’t have to worry about how we are going to heat our home, we don’t need to worry about where we are going to get clean water, we don’t have to walk to the river to wash our clothes, we don’t need to feed our horses, we don’t have to go to the library to look something up, we don’t need to hand stitch our clothing, when we are sick we don’t have to worry about access to a hospital…So how are we using all of this free time?

The standard answer of, “How are you?” is “I’m really busy.”

Why? Why do we feel like we don’t have any time available? More importantly, why do we feel like we don’t have time to do the work that matters most?

I think it’s a bad habit. A trap. When we say we are too busy to do our art, we think this lets us off the hook. Now though, we are seeing stress because the work we busy ourselves with isn’t the kind of work that makes us happy. It doesn’t make us better. And then, we perpetuate the cycle by adding debt, so we work extra hours. Because we work extra hours, we’re tired. Instead of working on our art, we watch television. Around and around we go.

There are billions of people who need to do certain tasks each day to survive. Most of us reading this don’t live in that type of environment. Most of the things we do in our lives have little consequence on our survival: checking email, checking Facebook, tweeting our lunch.

Once our survival is taken care of, we have an opportunity to make things better.

We need to develop a new posture. We need to stop telling ourselves stories that we don’t have time. Yes, time is still a finite source. But we have more of it than ever before. We need to be more meticulous in how we spend it.

If it’s important, we have time to do it.

Instead of being busy, be productive.