Maybe you feel like you want to be—or should be—more productive. Yet life seems to have other ideas. Demands get in the way. You get tired of pushing.

Inspiration dries up.

What could you do? What’s underneath that struggle to get things done?

A Commitment to Be Productive

You already know that driving yourself to do more doesn’t work very well. Maybe you get it done (whatever it is), but you’re drained in the process.

So much of life takes place staccato-like: stop/go, stop/go. When you are attached to a particular outcome or a process to do something, your body tightens. You hold your breath. Your ideas of what it looks like to be productive get in the way of being consciously productive.

You create an agenda. The restrictions you impose in your agenda often become single purposed rather than open and expansive.

Then your vision becomes limited and narrow.

Not a great way to stay inspired, is it?

Could there be an easier way?

What if you connected with the place inside yourself that has a desire to accomplish the task at hand?

With desire comes willingness.

A willingness to be productive implies both a commitment to express yourself and a deeper layer of surrender. You step away from your preconceived ideas of the end result and of how to achieve it.

The result? You allow for unplanned and unexpected elements to come to you, which accelerates the vision.

I know, I know, it’s those unplanned things that you dread most. Those things that interrupt your focus, that get in the way of whatever you want to “produce”.

There is another way to be with this, though. So that you feel inspired, rather than driven.

The source of your creative inspiration—the breath—is received as you inhale. It is put into action as you exhale. When it is activated and aligned, your inspiration fuels your ability to create: to “do”.

Both are needed. One flows into the other.

A Dynamic Flow

There is grace in being productive, with a dynamic flow between “inner” dialogue and “outer” action. You establish a rhythm. This gives life to your actions; your actions give form to your intentions. Your expression becomes effortless, with each step of creation provided for in the dialogue with your inner guidance.

Can you imagine the freedom of living in this way? It is not a drama-filled, unfettered version of freedom. Rather it is expression, fueled by an inner connection that has focus, and is contained by that guidance.

Reflection

Take a breath. Release it. Take another. Devote some dedicated time of concentration/meditation. It doesn’t need to be hours of quiet, perhaps only 15 minutes. Then allow the question to simmer within you.Let responses bubble up into your awareness. Notice new ways of thinking, of images or ideas that arise spontaneously. Pay attention to your dreams. Let it happen. Be aware. See where it leads you next. Let yourself savor this process of receiving from yourself. Don’t judge whatever comes up, just receive it. Make notes.

You are invited to share something from this process. Giving voice to your experience is an important way to anchor an insight in your body. It leads you to deeper insight and stimulates action. It can point the way to a new direction for someone else.