Don’t have enough time? Maybe you’re spending it doing the wrong things

Those of you who know me, know that I do not like to waste time. I want to feel like the activities I am doing mean something to me and the people around me. Don’t get me wrong, I like to relax and take time to do hobbies, but I also do so with intention.

When I think about the work I do for my clients, I often refer to books and reference materials to help me in whatever problem I am trying to solve in the moment.  I like to think of these things as my “weapons” for ongoing battle against improvement.

Often, I can spend a really long time looking for a particular quote or principle that I want to reference, which is really just wasting my time. There are so many books, that I am starting to question how many I really need.

I have come to realize that I also am a collector of these so called weapons and at times can become more of hindrance than a help. I think this is because there are so many that I have a hard time remembering where I saw something. There is also the problem of duplicity, where the same content is in multiple places.

So it got me thinking about the post from the other day about not collecting things for the sake of collecting them when I started writing about this principle…

Dokkōdō Principle #16: hyogu wa kakubetsu yo no dogu tashinamazu (ひょぐわ格別よのどぐ嗜まず) English interpretation: Do not seek especially either to collect or to practice with weapons beyond what is useful

In giving direction to his students, Musashi was basically saying that weapons are not collectible objects, even if they have great aesthetic qualities, know how to use them correctly and only have the ones that are necessary.

As I am writing this I am looking at my bookshelf. Books are exploding off of the shelves. Well maybe not exploding, but there may be a time soon where the weight of the books will exceed the load bearing limits of the shelves.

It got me thinking, am I collecting books for the sake of collecting them without any actually purpose behind it? If you refer back to the post the other day about not hanging on to more things that you actually need it kind of just continues this conversation. (Principle 14, link listed below)

So, my commitment I am making to myself is that I will start to go through my books and start looking to see if I have any that are beyond what is useful to me. Are there any that I haven’t cracked the spine on for while? Do I ever plan on reading the book again?

These are some questions I can start asking to start weeding out the books I don’t need, so I can spend less time looking for what I actually need. 

Are you a book hoarder like me? Perhaps it is time to donate some of these books to those that can put them to better use than I can? Or maybe they are at a similar stage of learning that I was when I originally bought them.

What I know for sure is that when I am emotionally drained from anything, it makes it really difficult for me to find joy in the daily activities that I doing. I find it challenging to enjoy the moments of each day. So, I am starting to think that there might be a strong connection between feeling a sense of ikigai and having an organized space to be in.

Either way, I am starting to realize that some of the emotional energy that I feel like is in short supply some days may be a direct result of all of the stuff I have laying around here. I think it is time to do some organizing.  Who’s with me?

#ikigai #books #5S #learning #explodingbookshelf

• Dokkōdō Principle #1
• Dokkōdō Principle #2
• Dokkōdō Principle #3
• Dokkōdō Principle #4
• Dokkōdō Principle #5
• Dokkōdō Principle #6
• Dokkōdō Principle #7
• Dokkōdō Principle #8
• Dokkōdō Principle #9
• Dokkōdō Principle #10
• Dokkōdō Principle #11
• Dokkōdō Principle #12
• Dokkōdō Principle #13
• Dokkōdō Principle #14
• Dokkōdō Principle #15