Spontaneous Living

Ever wondered why we have less time with all the worldly conveniences we have?

We have fast food. Internet and computers to make life easier. Drive thru so you don’t have to get out of your car. Car washes, lawn mower men, house cleaners and more… yet we still don’t have any time.

You go from weekend to weekend trying to catch up with your closest friends, and you both seem to always have something planned.

You have every right to ask, “What the hell is going on?”

Here’s a theory I have that might be worth expanding on.

There is a time management principle that says, “Time allowed is time taken”. Combine this with the ever increasing habit (which I believe has come about because of computers and the constant barrage of contact where people don’t get 3 seconds of silence to themselves) of “attention theft” and you have a world that feels a compelling need to be connected.

As we become more connected, technologically speaking, we are actually becoming more disconnected, people wise.

How far do we have to go before we lose touch with ourselves and the simplicity of living spontaneously, unplanned existences that allows our spirits to flow from moment to moment?

How long will it take before we lose touch altogether with the excitement of living in the moment?

For the past few weekends I have observed my own habits and time use. And I have made some interesting changes with some even more interesting benefits.

This weekend I woke up with only one goal – to watch my football team play at 2pm. Other than that, my only other goal was do experience that holiday-like feeling where you can basically do whatever you like, when you like.

So here’s what I did.

I walked outside at around 8am. I looked at my trees then thought about cutting down the dead palm branches so I did. After an hour or so, I thought it might be cool to put up my hammock again. It was a warm, sunny day – so I did.

After a little while, I decided to rip out some more of my garden and load the car with crap that was cluttering my life – so I took a short easy trip to the dump and felt immediately better.

On the way home, I spontaneously felt like a sauna. So I phoned my local dude and booked in for an hour later and continued home to hang out with my kids.

Instead of driving to the sauna, I thought it would be cool to ride my bike there, so I jumped on my tri bike and you get the idea. My whole weekend continued in this unplanned way.

Late Sunday afternoon, my wife was invited to some drinks with her friends, so we creatively decided to pack the kids in the car, drop Lisa with her friends and continue on to the movies to watch the “ZooKeeper” and pick her up later.

We all got into the spirit of “Spontaneous Living” and we had a ball. What was weirder was all the time it felt like we had. What was equally enlightening was just how much we did.

Sunday morning I ran the Bridge to Brisbane (which I only entered days before), and then on the spur of the moment we went to Broadbeach and had a gorgeous breakfast by the ocean. We walked on the beach and let the clock tick by with no real agenda for anything.

Spontaneous Living is not about doing nothing just because nothing is planned. In fact, I have found you get more done and with miles less stress. With no plan, there is no pressure. The excitement is heightened and the experience freshly felt in every moment.

Try Spontaneous Living for yourself – you never know what might happen.