The holiday we're so glad exists: Lazy Day
You're probably thinking, "there's a holiday for everything," and you, my friend, would be right. But the reason Lazy Day is one that gets my vote of approval more so than Create a Vacuum Day (huh?), is evident in who we are: human beings, not human doers. If the ambitious, striving, workaholic, perfectionist part of ourselves need a holiday to embrace the joy of being lazy, who are we to argue? Let's just kick off our shoes and do nothing.
I'll never forget a speaker who came to give a lecture at my college on the value of leisure. What he said made such an impression on me, I scribbled it down in my notebook. Many of us are so focused on achieving and scratching off every item on our to do list that we've overlooked a simple truth: we reveal ourselves in leisure as much as our work. Our Puritan work ethic is mixed in with the American soil; people go halfway around the world just to learn how to do nothing. But our deepest held values and personal truths are evident in the way we choose to spend a free afternoon or hour, just as much as they show through in our climb up the corporate ladder.
So how will you embrace laziness today? You don't have to take the day off work. It can be as simple as insisting on half an hour to drink a glass of wine on the porch and watch the neighborhood go by. Here are ten ideas on how to get your idle on:
Buy a magazine, and read it in the bathtub.
Climb in to a hammock with a glass of iced tea.
Watch your favorite movie for the 40 millionth time, just because.
Stare out windows on buses and trains.
Watch clouds.
Take a nap.
Stay in your pajamas, or put them back on as soon as you get home.
Put an auto-response on your email saying you'll get back to people tomorrow.
Pluck your favorite mystery or young adult novel off the bookshelf and fall into the couch with it.
Acknowledge the difference between urgent tasks and those that will keep till tomorrow. Putting off non-pressing to-dos today will give you time to do what really needs to be done: nothing.
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