Experiences vs. Productivity

Today i am learning a viewpoint that seems far more freeing. I always seemed to rate things on their productivity. Did I get it done? Did I make a sale? Did I finish my list? Did I produce results? We are trained from very young to see through this lens. Efficiency, Results. Complete. Next thing. Keep doing.

Today I am playing with the measuring point of what did I experience today? It opens up the value of many things that wouldn't directly be considered productive. To live a life well is to have lots of experiences in many venues. Not just productivity, In fact even things that didn't work or produce have great value. I have constantly had an eye on what will come of something as its value, not just the experience. This has offered such freedom and eye opening view that I am just beginning to feel. 

I found this online: Productivity is about efficiency and achieving tangible outcomes, whereas experience is about the qualitative journey, learning, and presence. A fulfilling life balances the two by measuring value through meaningful actions rather than just task completion or endless output.

For instance, I awoke kind of slow, was up at odd hours but sat outside with my coffee listening to the birds and life around me for 10 minutes. It was an experience. I knew I had a sales meeting at 10 and networking tonight so I got myself pretty for the meeting and day. It was an experience of feeling and looking good to myself. I was inspired by the call and many ideas came up and options,  our company is beautifully expanding. Rather than rush to production, I went outside to absorb, to integrate and digest the 1 1/2 hour of learning. Normally I would jump into action on the ideas, Get productive. Today, I took paper and wrote down what I got from the meeting. Put it aside for now and just allowed the space between the meeting and my action. I digested like we do food before running out of the track. I can experience, digest, absorb what it all inspired. Experience the integration and beauty break outside.

Can you see how when we catagorize things as productive always, we don't get the in between time as we do our tasks? For me, then it gets faster and faster until I am exhausted. I put so many things in a row and don't really digest or integrate any. I don't give space between things to complete the experience or task. So later, I have a ramble mind with so many windows open. I just didn't complete one thing, settle and then begin the next. That settle ,so important for me! Viewing all as experience vs productivity, gives me a better pace and freedom to enjoy even mix up my day with a bit of everything.

Otherwise, I get on a work roll and do and do and do. I don't appreciate the odd moth on the door as I go by to get dressed. I don't even hear the birds or sound of nature as I rush through productivity. I don't count so many of the things I love, that soothe, that settle, that inspire, that I enjoy, if life is all about productivity. I don't take the moments between things to let them land inside me. I live then in a mental creation of life and there is not the space and embodiment of all the other deliciousness. 

Just now I stepped away from writing as my neighbor was going by. I had something to return. I could of kept writing and left it on his porch. When I saw him, I stepped outside to thank him for mowing all the lands here and see how his day was. We had a sweet little connection and he had a good mood going. An experience. It was not productive in the terms we qualify things. For me it had value. A nice chat, Human connection, Gratitude, Keeping my community lines open. These are experiences that sing me. As I sit back to write, I have more joy in this moment for the quick connection.

Even the farm down the road where I get food weekly, it is not the grocery store. Yes, the grocery store would be a one shot deal for all I need, efficient. Yet the farm has veggies and breads, fresh things that it is a pleasure to go get. The cucumbers and tomatoes taste like I grew them myself which is very different than grocery store veggies. I love the visit and chat with the locals. Supporting farming and community. A better experience for me than shopping the store.

I invite you to look at how you are riding in perspective. We all enjoy experiences. With a production point of view, we weight things as this is more important than that. Yet, it is all life. Life is meant to be lived not just thought of, then action with no in between or valuable integration of it. We push past our emotions for our productivity. Then they build up inside and we are depressed or exhausted. I don't have time to be angry or cry we think.  We push past the things that will be healthy. Noticing them, feeling them, letting them go. We push past savoring, honoring and enjoying too. All in the name of production. 

We do too much in this life without really allowing it to land. Or to allow the simple things, the joys of the butterfly or a good glass of water when we are thirsty. Or really taste our meals. Really engage people in the eyes. We rush past so much of life that we love or save it for the weekends in the name of productivity. Why? Because we were taught too? I give it up!

We are all shifting from one way of being to another. I can't exactly put my finger on it but I feel humanity deepening in a way. Become more online to ourselves, more present, more questioning, seeing value and truth. For me to experience my life fully and make that the count of a day feels so much better, freer. Not what I sold or who I met to further my plans. I want it filled with so many other things that bring richness and wonder, not just being productive at what I do.

​I want to live life in each moment and sap out the pleasure I can. For there are issues, problems, situations that come and are here. Many times the step away, let it go, do something else is the best solution to be productive. It is why we take vacations. We can do it throughout our day to get a better rhythm, know our values, live them and be engaged in life in full body, not just our rambling  mind. 

Blessings to your counting experiences as production vs your tasks! Quite liberating to many norms inside that I will no longer carry down the path.