Productivity is another word for Survival
... it just sounds better, glosses over fear gluing intense behavior, and spins us faster and faster-far away from somatic wisdom informing us that we are okay and there is a better way.
Hello my friend,
Hello. Hello. Hello.
I’ve been quiet on the electronic page, and this writing forum. A draft of this topic began six months ago and has been sitting in my que. Many drafts and topics sit in my que. Some might say I have not been productive.
Productive needs definition but more importantly it needs context. In fact, context is everything in our choices. Context allows discernment, morality, attunement, love, kindness, clarity and our humanity to breathe.
Google defines context as: “the circumstances that form the setting for an event, statement, or idea, and in terms of which it can be fully understood and assessed.”
From a context of frequently writing and publishing, here on Substack, I have not been productive.
From a context of my human life - accomplishing tasks, choosing healthy habits, fulfilling my agreements, loving the people in front of me, writing for my clients - I’m rocking and dancing productivity with “moves like Jagger”.
Related to the title of productivity and survival, I’ve been exploring productivity to gain a deeper understanding of this way of going (move fast, do more, be more). My cognition knows without doubt going faster is not better; yet my embodiment of this way of going is slow going - pun intended.
Slow Productivity, the Lost art of Accomplishment without Burnout by Cal Newport, is one source of my reading material. Offered below are a few pearls of thought to support your curiosity, and discoveries.
Devoted to new stories for a better world, I am co-creating a new story about productivity (old story) and creativity (new story) with my friend Alexande DeBlieux in a community choosing to grow collective kindness, joy, peace - humanity at its best. In March, a year long program Cultivating New Stories for Humanity begins with Katie Hendricks, Ph.D. leading. Alexande and I will present our class during the year with other members inviting new stories for humanity. Check out the details here: Cultivating New Stories for Humanity
What old stories are you ready to release for a new fresh view?
Does your story of productivity keep you in survival?
What is productive?
Is making 14 flower arrangements after my ikebana class productive? My beloved bought me several bunches of grocery store flowers (too long of a story) and I chose to create-appreciating their petals and stems and shining their beauty in our home.
I’ve been “dutifully productive” in our old story of productivity, even as creativity captured my attention for a new way. My mental body (do more tasks) and emotional body (I feel exhausted and overwhelmed) were very aware of the old story and new story. Yet it wasn’t until I broke my wrist early November that my physical body said, “Come on Gayle. I love you too much to keep this old story of productivity going. Turn toward the new story - wholeheartedly, whole-bodily.”
And so I did.
I am.
Here’s what I am discovering.
The Old Story of Productivity
Productivity puts a limit on what’s possible, most importantly the experience of joy, connection, well-being and purpose. Productivity steeps in scarcity demanding more and more of our physical, emotional, mental and spiritual bank accounts. Productivity declines toward survival where fear rules the roost.
Let’s look back - just a bit - to understand how productivity was birthed. What is the etymology of productivity? How far back in our history is helpful?
Origin Story of Productivity - 5 minute YouTube Video
In Slow Productivity, the author references definitions from historical experiences that shape our views on productivity.
PSEUDO-PRODUCTIVITY
The use of visible activity as the primary means of approximating actual productive effort.
KNOWLEDGE WORK (General definition)
The economic activity in which knowledge is transformed into an artifact with market value through the application of cognitive effort.
Visible activity, productive effort, economic activity and cognitive effort capture my attention. Evolving from a period of physical (visible) production to a modern day period of cognitive (invisible/technological) production creates infinite pressure without clear measurements - ahem, except financial - on productivity.
How do they/we/you/I measure productivity, today?
If productivity is only measured by external metrics like profit, we eliminate our precious human existence adding to deeper misery, burnout and suffering.
Money and profit can never sustain productivity and it never could. Unseen in the productivity movement is the loss of humanity, our unique talent and generative gifts that nourish beauty, health, connection, sufficiency and compassion. Unseen are the new ideas that meet evolving problems in our world.
Unseen is the creativity that pulses through our soul and fills us with vitality to create - just for the pure joy of it.
When productivity is tied to survival, our motivation for work is stale and void of life energy, new ideas, vitality, and the resourceful ingredients that sustain life. Our why is stuck in survival rather than a nourishing resourceful meaningful life.
If productivity remains consumed with the need for more, do more, be more, consume more, we all lose. The human game is over.
Let’s turn this story around with a new story of creativity, the authentic productivity.
The New Story of Creativity, authentic productivity
Authentic productivity invites our wholebody experience in our highest purpose, conscious actions and measurable output. How we think, feel, sense and act matter and creativity is the gateway for our unceasing well-being and generative world. We realize that wholebody wisdom - physical, emotional, mental and spiritual - guides us in life. Missing from productive measurements is our wholebody wisdom.
Our individual imperative is to be resourced internally by recognizing and reshaping our creative impulse and inspiration.
Those 14 flower arrangements were fueled by creativity and I FELT immense joy, ease, delight, peace and fulfillment before, during and after my experience.
Cal Newport offers a way in with slow productivity.
SLOW PRODUCTIVITY
A philosophy for organizing knowledge work efforts in a sustainable and meaningful manner, based on the following three principles:
Do fewer things.
Work at a natural pace.
Obsess over quality.
Do Fewer Things
Quipping do fewer things could be, no it is, an irritating instruction. Underneath the invitation is discernment, held in the heart knowing what really matters. Discerning from a soul centered what matters most, is an act of love, courage, clarity and strength.
Badass discernment is impeccable integrity in action.
Uplevel your new year’s resolutions with empowered declarations and put this at the top of the list. Don’t bother to retrace your steps on how many things you accomplished, and the completions you checked, and the tasks tallied in your electronic task management system.
Stop.
Look around.
Feel inside.
What truly matters? Why is this important? Connect to your heart.
Name it. Claim it.
What does clarity, strength, heart-knowing FEEL like for you?
Give attention to your belly, heart, spine and all the sensations moving inside your body. What you directly experience is the answer to what it FEELS like for you.
For me, clarity, strength and heart-knowing feels like: a powerful stream moving impeccably, sometimes fast, sometimes slow. My lips turn upward, my eyes soften, my spine is bamboo flexflowing, opening wide and reaching tall. Present. Awake. Still. Spacious. My heart stretches horizontal. My belly grows roots down into the earth.
Choosing fewer things means that what is most important is embodied in my bones and blood. Clarity of direction opens the door for choice of HOW.
How do you choose to move?
Work At a Natural Pace
Many of us don’t know or recognize a natural pace, unless perhaps we are on vacation, fatigued and drop into long needed rest. We know decades of conditioning to move faster fueled by adrenaline sourced from fear and survival to keep going.
My favorite invitation and touchstone for natural pace is from Christina Baldwin and her book, The Seven Whispers. The second whisper is to Move at the Pace of Guidance.
She says, “the pace of guidance invites us to combine the practices of measured movement and listening.” I call this the pace of grace.
Doing fewer things, we slow down and listen. And guess what? We hear a lot of noise.
Who or what are you listening to?
The noise outside is not helpful, often harmful. I choose to listen to my heart.
Move at the pace of grace to widen the gap of doing and being, to allow your active frantic mind to settle and for your heart to speak. In my experience, moving at the pace of grace optimizes energy for the situation, and sustains my physical, emotional, mental and spiritual capacity.
Move at the pace of grace.
Measure your day and authentic production in these ways:
how good and energized you feel
who smiled and how often in your presence
how deep you connected
how satisfied you feel
what touched you
what is YOUR way of measuring, that is life-giving?
My 14 flower arrangements check all the boxes for authentic productivity - pure joy and increased energy, no waste of materials, prolific output, beauty expanded, vitality, connection.
Obsess Over Quality
When we move at the pace of grace, quality is a natural output. Quality sustains the test of time, like old solid wooden furniture. A hundred years from now, that solid cherry chest of drawers has a chance to be here. Plastic mass production of Ikea will be recycled or sitting in a landfill.
In Slow Productivity the author shares the story of singer songwriter Jewel, her humble beginnings, being found by record executive, the music scene, and her skillful choices to go slow, listen to guidance and live by the truth that “hardwood grows slowly”.
Quality is the result of maturity, experience and wisdom, which bow to going at the pace of grace and learned truths along the way.
Quality is infused with creativity. Creativity allows our human legacy to flourish and be of benefit long after our presence on earth.
Hardwood grows slowly.
Our hardwood is what brings us alive, filled with joy, connected to life (humans, creatures, plants), beaming love, and inspiration for a life worth living.
Is your hardwood growing slowly? Are you aware of your hardwood?
I ask myself the same questions, repeatedly. Answers arrive from inside. I can’t think of a better time than now to listen to guidance from inside-your heart will never let you down.
With intention I have not mentioned the disruption permeating every facet of our lives. There is plenty of information to absorb if you choose.
My focus is close in and what I can influence, nourishing new stories for a better world. Return to context noted at the beginning of this blog. What is the context you are engaging? From the context of money, the new story is sufficiency and generosity, the Virtuous Flow of Somatic Finance, inspiring us away from the old story of scarcity and greed.
Thank you for being here and creating new stories with me.
With adoration and strength,
Gayle