Leaders Practice The Art Of Doing Nothing
The Italians are known for practicing a concept called “La Dolce Far Niente,” which means the sweetness of doing nothing. Elizabeth Gilbert captured this lifestyle in the movie Eat, Pray, Love. Julia Roberts’ character is enjoying pastries with her new friend while the local Italian men are teaching her this phrase about the art of doing nothing. It’s a great scene that truly highlights the problem with our flawed modern-day western philosophy of success; the more you do, the more successful you are.
Somehow, someway we have believed that doing more will make us happier. The problem is that this notion is clearly not working. As a culture, we are busier than ever, yet, more depressed and burned out than ever. Americans work more hours and take less vacation than nearly 98% of other countries in the world. No wonder the World Health Association ranks America as the third-worst country for mental health illness and number one for depression and anxiety disorders. The thought of doing nothing is literally a foreign idea that scares most of us.
But maybe, just maybe, the Italians have it right. You see, in order to become successful, we have to shift our mindset from quantity to quality. We have to understand that doing nothing is actually doing something when we do it right. Success dwells in serenity. We have to change our fundamental perception of nothing. Doing nothing is vital for quality of life. In fact, your brain is doing way more than you know when you’re doing nothing. The sweetness of doing nothing allows the brain to process and assimilate information behind the scenes. This neuroprocessing has been studied and well documented as The Incubation Effect. In the early 1900’s Psychologist, Graham Wallas researched and taught this concept that has since been adopted throughout modern-history. The Incubation Effect is simply the process of allowing your brain to solve-problems and computes data in your sub-conscious without consciously working on it. When you shift gears by pulling back from what you were working on, your brain continues to process as you rest.
“Success dwells in serenity.”
In ancient times, there was a group of brothers known as the sons of Korah. They wrote a famous psalm while pondering the Creator where they penned the phrase from God saying, “Be still and know that I am God.” It was believed that in the stillness there is a revelation of the Almighty–a spiritual incubation effect. Creative geniuses have used this technique to further their success for ages. The famous poet T.S. Elliot gave great credit to incubating in his 1942 classic Anatomy of Inspiration. And Alexandar Graham Bell, the brilliant inventor who gave us the telephone said this,
“I am a believer in unconscious cerebration. The brain is working all the time, though we do not know it. At night, it follows up what we think in the daytime. When I have worked a long time on one thing, I make it a point to bring all the facts regarding it together before I retire; and I have often been surprised at the results. Have you not noticed that, often, what was dark and perplexing to you the night before, is found to be perfectly solved the next morning?”
