Mar
14
How to Win by Quitting
Filed Under Personal Topics
Chances are pretty good that he wouldn’t take the job, and not just because he died a long time ago. Thoreau moved to the woods, to Walden Pond, retreated from what he saw as the self destructive, wild cultural demands of the industrialized world, and returned to nature. He sought a refuge from the busyness of his day. Imagine what he would think of the traffic, fast food, TV, kid transporting, cell phones, computers, and double shifts of today?
I suggest it isn’t an accident we are so busy.
Why do you think everyone is so busy? Why do you feel left out if you are caught up? Why is cool to have a backlog? This phenomenon is not an accident. Though it seems there is so much to do, virtually none of it needs to be done. We seek to never be in the position of having extra attention. We simply don’t want gaps in our lives, in our business, in our relationships. Vacations used to be opportunities for relaxation; now we are busier on vacation than we are normally. Several years ago I wrote a book called, How to Win by Quitting. In that book I offered ways to liberate ourselves from being so busy–from the lack of perspective that a lack of reflection always provides.
When I wrote How to Win by Quitting I didn’t understand that people don’t want more attention, though they seek it. People don’t want “free time,” in fact they are afraid of it. Waking up is not hard to do; I have been with many hundreds of people as they woke up during the forum of my workshops. But living awake is tough. Upon waking up you instantly became a member of a very small and exclusive club of people with much greater presence, attention, and ability, thus leaving your peers behind. If you have ever been a drinker and quit drinking you know what I am talking about. The consistent stupors and preoccupations of your friends who still drink just aren’t as interesting when you are sober. Your drinking buddies, meaning well, just want you to drink again, to get back into their club. Upon waking up you discover that nearly everyone else is asleep. You also discover that it is a night and day difference between being asleep and being awake and that nobody who is asleep notices the difference. Part of the particular sleepy trance people live in is that they don’t know they are sleeping. Only upon waking up do you discover that you were sleeping.
Attention, specifically attention focused on attention rather than on an object, is the key to waking up. It is possible to jump start the process of waking up by doing simple exercises for a period of time while in the presence of someone who is awake.
What is waking up? That question is more relevant than nearly any question we ask. The very act of asking that question is daring and useful. A simple answer to the question is that waking up is a shift from living as a reaction to expressing the very act of living as a creation. Human beings are one of the only (perhaps the only) creatures on Earth capable of not having to react. Many gurus talk about waking up. A few can provide you with the experience of waking up, fewer still can interact with you in such a way that you can wake up on your own or remain awake. While not a guru, I have spent decades exploring what it is to wake up. I have had people wake up in my presence consistently, and learn how to wake up on their own. If you get a sense that waking up is of interest to you, let’s dance. Let’s blend your willingness with my technologies and experience. May I have this dance?
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2 Responses to “How to Win by Quitting”
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Hi Jerry,
It seems that there is a delicious paradox in noticing upon waking up, that wakefulness is all there is, or, awareness is all there is, and it is beyond sleeping and waking.
If I desire to sleep , and then work to cultivate my sleep ,and then I become skilled in getting to sleep and remaining asleep , does that mean I am awake to being asleep?
So does that mean whatever you knowingly work at , is what you are awake to?
Thoughts , comments , responses?
Regards.