Again, from ‘The 4-Hour Workweek’ by Tim Ferriss, I found this gem:
Profit is only profitable to the extent that you can use it. For that you need time.
Much later in the book, we have:
Stuff lingering on the brain from work ruin free time with preoccupation; time without attention is worthless, so value attention over time.
This last quote stresses the necessity of being in the now. You are not really free if your body is on the beach and your head is at the office. So to get the most out of your ‘Out of the Office’ experience, you’ve got to reattach your head to wherever you’ve decided to put your body. You’ve escaped for a week – you might as well enjoy yourself! This leads me to a couple of rather mathematical scenarios… bear with me. If we had a finite amount of attention and a variable amount of time, we have:
- Scenario 1 – You take a lot of time off, but your attention is rarely there. (Low density of enjoyment per time)
- Scenario 2 – You take a little time off, and your attention is completely there. (High density of enjoyment per time)
It would seem way more efficient to figure out a way to fully ‘be in your body’ to be fully free during your time off, whether it is an extra long weekend… or 5 minutes. Thus, if you’ve got time to play, and you’re a-gonna play, y’might as well play hard: profit from your… profit.
Ha – who would have thought that, “Work hard. Play hard,” can take on a very Taoist “be in the now” meaning.