The beautiful and endearing Rachel from In Spaces Between wrote a fantastic piece titled Do The Work: Inspired Action in the Face of Procrastination recently. I sat there reading her wonderfully strung together words, nodding my head thinking, “Yes, yes, I totally know what you mean. In fact I was there pretty much all of last week”.
In reading these musings that so many of us resonate with, I wanted to add another element.
Sometimes procrastination is necessary. It is part of the process in creating content. We are socialised to be DO’ers. To accomplish tasks, to meet deadlines, to fulfil commitments and to generally be productive with a tangible outcome that can be measured. Words written. Assignments completed. Dishes done. Facebook updated. Dog walked. Art project finished. Creative process outlined.
However, I notice within myself that when I consciously choose NOT to feel guilty about neglecting to do what I have assigned myself and just accept where im at right mow, no matter how much I love to do it, if I’m not feeling it in that moment, then there is no point in forcing it out of myself. Of course, there are plenty of times where I have work to do, work that I adore, but I just don’t feel like doing it! And so I let it go, move on. In the letting go, the inspiration returns, in it’s own time, providing with it a flurry of new ideas and the drive to let it all tumble out of you.
Rachel’s article wouldn’t have been what it is had she not tapped into herself, let it go and accepted that right now, she wasn’t going to accomplish what she had set out for herself to do, and in that letting go inspired her to write and share with us a topic that we all deal with, some on a daily basis. Procrastination.
Sometimes, it’s about letting go and accepting yourself in the space that you show up in this moment. When I plague myself with guilt and try to force a creative element out it seems to extend my romance with procrastination. When I let it go and focus on doing things that make me feel good, I easily and happily return to the project I have at hand.
I think these moments in time of not-doing, are as equally valuable as the times where we are creating output. They are the times where we absorb the lessons and inspiration around us in order to share something of value. These are the times where we connect with BE-ing rather than DO-ing and this is beneficial in order to have content to create and share. After all, I believe it was Elkhart Tolle that asked “Are you a human Being or a human Doing?”

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