The Happiness Equation: Want Nothing + Do Anything = Have Everything

7

“What is this life if, full of care, we have no time to stand and stare?”

Why are we so busy?

Because we’ve run out of space.

And we don’t always value space enough in our lives.

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What’s the secret step we can take to never be busy again? Create space. Build it in. Make sure you always have it. Space in your day, space in your week, space in your month. Allowing ideas to percolate, relationships to bake, and years to fully blossom into long and happy lives.

Creating space is the secret step to freeing yourself from the oppression of your busy life.

Let’s remember the three ways to create space: the 3 Removals.

Remember the dark caped crusaders with menacing masks holding big, sharp scythes? They hack at parts of your life so you’re free to do other things. Space comes from this hacking. Space in your life comes from hacking at choice, time, and access.

How to make every decision at twice the speed? Remove choice.

What’s the counterintuitive way to having more time? Remove time.

How to add an hour to the day with only one small change? Remove access.

What do we get by creating space? Tim Kreider wrote “The ‘Busy’ Trap” in The New York Times, where he says: “Idleness is not just a vacation, an indulgence or a vice; it is as indispensable to the brain as vitamin D is to the body, and deprived of it we suffer a mental affliction as disfiguring as rickets. The space and quiet that idleness provides is a necessary condition for standing back from life and seeing it whole, for making unexpected connections and waiting for the wild summer lightning strikes of inspiration—it is, paradoxically, necessary to getting any work done.”

Maybe it sounds conflicting. On one hand, we’re talking about never retiring. On the other, we’re talking about creating space to get more done. But let’s remember that retiring means stopping completely. Creating space means injecting space into your life so you can properly live it. Thoughts process, experiences reflect, and ideas spark. And burn is even sweeter after that.

Remember the Space Scribble.

Flip between Burn and Space. Take Thinking breaks. Take Doing breaks. Use the 3 Removals to add to your life. Because life is short. Time is fleeting. And you will never be as young as you are right now.

So develop extra space by Removing Choice, Removing Time, and Removing Access, and nurture that space, that powerful space, so it fills your mind and time and life with contentment, freedom, and happiness.

I want this for you more than anything.

The poem called “Leisure,” written by W. H. Davies in 1911, is all about creating space. We have to go back over a hundred years to find the perfect poem talking about how to live a happier life today.

What is this life if, full of care,

We have no time to stand and stare.

No time to stand beneath the boughs,

And stare as long as sheep or cows.

No time to see, when woods we pass,

Where squirrels hide their nuts in grass.

No time to see, in broad daylight,

Streams full of stars, like skies at night.

No time to turn at Beauty’s glance,

And watch her feet, how they can dance.

No time to wait till her mouth can

Enrich that smile her eyes began.

A poor life this if, full of care,

We have no time to stand and stare.