Soft productivity is a compassionate approach to your productivity and creativity. It is rooted in grace and love, but still is strong.
Harsh productivity tells you that you’re constantly not doing enough. It keeps you in the rat race that success and burnout go hand in hand. The high intensity zone of society’s ideals of success and productivity will only build stress in the body. This will inevitably lead to burnout, and also break your body down in both mental and physical ways.
Your body and mind are not meant to sustain such high levels of intensity for long periods of time. Learning to be productive with grace is not only sustainable, but a gentle approach to being more productive in the long run.
The following 5 essential tips will help you learn to be as productive as you can or wish to be, while still having compassion towards yourself. Learning the art of soft productivity in a world that demands unrelenting high intensity in order to have success is truly a superpower.
Commit to the things that align with you
Ask yourself what makes you happy. Ask yourself what aligns to you. Experiment with life, have fun, and when you find things that align to you, commit to them. Give yourself the grace to make mistakes. Learn to celebrate progress not perfection.
Your dreams are a commitment. Your dream is to have a fulfilling life, and the path to fulfillment is through following your dreams, not someone else’s.
If you try to chase another person’s version of success by comparing yourself, you will only fall out of alignment. Know that one person’s dream may be another person’s nightmare. What brings one person joy, may bring you misery. You may think because this person found success in what they do that you will too, but what brings them happiness is not necessarily what will bring you happiness.
Everyone has their own path to follow. Trying to follow someone else’s path because you see their success will not bring you the same success. You have to find what lights you up inside and follow that light because it makes you happy. If you are running someone else’s race, productivity becomes toxic.
Listen to your intuition, what your gut tells you. Follow that inner knowing and what lights you up inside. That is when you will find alignment, when you can be your authentic self on your own path to success.
You only need one hour a day
If you have a big dream in your heart, it can sometimes feel overwhelming of where to even start. You may feel that in your busy life, you won’t have the time to make your dreams happen. You know too well that dreams don’t just happen by thinking about them, or even writing them down. Dreams happen with small daily actionable steps.
Know that all you need is just one hour a day. One focused hour of attention on your goals can get you farther than you realize. That kind of momentum will also keep you inspired and focused to continue onto further goals and dreams. It is much easier to move something that is already in motion than to begin and start again each time you go back to working on your goals.
No matter how busy you may be, anyone can fit in one hour a day. Yes that may mean waking up one hour earlier before your day begins, or carving out one hour before you go to sleep. However that time that you squeeze in for yourself to work on your dreams is prioritizing yourself. Prioritizing yourself is self care and self love.
Take care of yourself
Taking care of your body and your mind is such an essential piece of the puzzle towards chasing your dreams. You cannot function at the level you desire if you do not prioritize your health. Your mind will not be as sharp and focused and your body will feel tired and drained if you disregard your health.
What does taking care of yourself look like? It means nourishing yourself with good foods, getting enough rest, exercising and taking quality supplements. It means taking time to meditate, even if that’s a meditative walk outside. Taking time to enjoy life and have fulfilling experiences. Travel. Try new activities. Remember to have fun and fit in time for play.
You will feel so renewed after such experiences. When you come back to working on your goals and dreams you will feel a rejuvenated sense of energy and clarity that may have been clouded before.
Slowing down, and taking care of your body and mind will remind you that it’s often in the periods of rest that your creative mind surges. You cannot maintain a high intensity sense of productivity by burning the candle on both ends. By allowing yourself to rest, to have fun, explore, and just be present, you will find your productive time effortlessly flow with grace.
Be mindful of what you consume
Your mind is a powerful tool and thus it is wise to be cautious on what you choose and choose not to consume. If you are constantly filling your empty time by comparing your life to others, or their success to yours, you will only feel a lowered self esteem or insecurity and a lack of confidence in your own direction.
Competition does not inspire greatness. The energy of competition is a low vibration. As Theodore Roosevelt once said: “Comparison is the thief of joy”. So do not expel your energy towards consuming things that only make you feel worse about yourself, or make you feel that you are not doing enough just because someone else is further along their journey than you.
Your path is so unique. Treasure it. Don’t focus on their path, don’t focus on his path, and don’t focus on hers. Don’t go on Instagram and start doubting what you are doing. Stick to the plan. Stay on your path.
Be mindful of what and how often you consume. Make sure it uplifts your spirit and brings you inspiration. Anything else that does not align, unfollow.
Focus on the small steps
Kaizen is a Japanese term that means creating small, ongoing positive changes for continuous and significant improvement. This term is relevant in learning to be productive with grace in that focusing on the small steps, perfecting and improving those steps, can make the greatest impact.
Progress is not perfection. Progress is in each tiny step you make towards your goal or dream. Progress is learning to fine tune each of those steps as you take them. As you learn better efficiency, things will get easier overtime. Most importantly you will reach your goals faster by focusing on the small steps.
Don’t repeat negative cycles so you burn out. Recognize that you will sometimes have high productivity seasons, followed by low productivity seasons. Learn to celebrate and rest in between. Being able to celebrate yourself is a sign of good mental health. Do not punish yourself or tell yourself you’re not doing enough.
Look back and see how far you have come, and you will see that you are further along than you realize. There is no timeline to fulfilling your dreams. You are never too old, too young, or too anything to chase what dream has spoken to your heart. That dream is there because it is meant to come true.
Focus on the small steps, you will get there before you know it.
Final Thoughts
Soft productivity is a gentle approach towards living the most productive life, without the harsh judgment and criticisms towards yourself. It is a compassionate approach to help guide you towards chasing every goal and dream you desire, without falling into toxic cycles and habits of comparison, lack of self care and perfectionism.
Following this gentle approach will help lead you to a more fulfilling and joyful life. Instead of chasing someone else’s ideals and dreams, you will be chasing your own. Instead of prioritizing others, you will be prioritizing yourself. Instead of focusing on perfection, you will be focusing on progress. Instead of punishing yourself for not being as far along as someone else, you will celebrate yourself for how far along you have come on your own journey.
Your dreams are worth it. You are worth it. Your presence has purpose, and the gifts that live inside of you will bring the light that this world needs.
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