“Tears and laughter are near kin. People so often run from one extreme to another. Let the mind be cheerful, but calm. Never let it run into excesses, because every excess will be followed by a reaction.”
— Swami Vivekananda
“All of humanity’s problems stem from man’s inability to sit quietly in a room alone,” French philosopher Blaise Pascal said.
When the sailing is smooth, we deliberately rock the ship to spice up our lives. When our relationship is steady, we pick fights with our partners. When business is solid, we complicate processes. The following arguments, tears, stress, and fire-fighting make us feel like we’re earning what we’ve got.
You may be busy when you’re battling through chaos, but you won’t be productive. Nothing meaningful can be achieved when you’re a prisoner of events.
It’s important to take action, but it’s more important for calm thoughts to direct those actions. Take time out each day to calm your mind. Focus on what’s important and plan how you will approach it. Then act on those plans.
Merely being busy makes you run in circles. Taking the right action moves you forward.