Dating myself

To restore, replenish and recharge

In her book, the Artist’s Way, the two things Julia Cameron considers nonnegotiable are the morning pages and the artist’s dates. I’m good with morning pages. I’ve been journaling for over 22 years. I’ve taught journaling for personal development. Journaling for me is second nature, as natural as breathing.

But spending quality time alone in a restorative way where the goal is not to be ‘productive’ is something I need to work on. I’m inflicted by the disease of productivity — due to a powerful combination of immigrant + millennial mentality, growing up in the heyday of all the productivity systems that taught us how to increase efficiency, how to hustle even in our hobbies and how wasting time was like wasting life.

It has its advantages. This mindset has instilled in me excellent work ethic, a lack of entitlement that the world or anyone owes me anything, and a desire to make a meaningful contribution.

But I want to balance my drive, passion and determination with contentment and being at peace with where I am and who I am at any given moment, even as I continue to work on growing. A budding flower isn’t dissatisfied with its current state. It goes through each stage of its journey as nature intended.

So I’ve decided to do artist’s dates properly. Even though the word ‘frivolity’…