The tragedy of living in the “Grey Zone”
Ok boys and girls – almost half way there for this intensive week.
One of the biggest factors that prevent those struggling to succeed from making progress is their frequent inability to focus on the task at hand, thus never actually getting it done or completing it with the quality that it deserves.
This is the point when I’d like to refer to the good old cliche: “If it’s worth doing, then its worth doing it well!” (note: if you are not sure whether something is worth doing, once again review previous activities)
This lack of full engagement is something that Tony Swartz refers to as the “Grey zone”. The place where there is so much salad of thoughts, emotional interruptions and physical distractions that an activity loses its purity of experience. When that happens, not only do we lose the focus and never perform up to our standards and abilities, but we simply no longer enjoy experiences offered by participating in activities.
Be it talking to a girl, preparing for exams, spending time with your family. It is the grey zones that robs us of experiences and ultimately jeopardize the quality of desired outcomes.
So the question for you is: Where are you living in the “Grey zone”?
- Physically
- Emotionally
- Logically
Today’s activity is designed to identify these areas of your life where you are missing out due to a lack of full engagement. For example, you might be passionate about your new project or even your own business to the point where it consumes energy even at the expense of other experiences. Such as when you are spending time with a loved one instead of immersing yourself into mutual passion and pleasure of emotions shared with someone close to, your mind is preoccupied with things that are not relevant that very moment.
The tragedy is that even though you probably mean well in being mindful at all times of things that will ultimately give you long term benefits, meanwhile they rob you of immediate, high quality results and even prevent full enjoyment of experiences during some of the most precious moments.
Activity 3:
1. Identify and make a list of all areas of your life where you are living in the “Grey zone”.
2. Underline all items on the list that need to be pulled out of the grey zone in order to improve the quality of results and even possibly offer your opportunity to start enjoying the purity of experiences by fully engaging in the activity.
Spend a few minutes thinking about this activity and contemplate the ways in which you can develop a means for full engagement in selected tasks at any one time by dedicating to each one a set amount of emotional, physical and environmental interruption-free chunks of time.
We will come back to this and explore in more detail during mastermind group sessions as to how you can actually do more efficiently and start seeing immediate results as well as to learn to enjoy your time spent on anything that you choose to participate in, but for now seed this activity into your subconscious and we’ll discuss it in the future.
Sorry guys a glitch disabled comments options. Fixed now.
I’ve realised that any urgent tasks I have, CONSTANTLY linger in my mind and thus they cause grey zones.
When I’m in “the zone”, i.e. full concentration, nothing is a grey zone, but sometimes I find it hard to get into that ‘zone’ and end up going into daydreaming phases.
If I can get all areas out of the grey zone, I reckon I could at least double my productivity
Ok guys in the interest of putting myself out there to the universe I will reveal my two greatest grey zones. The idea is to unashamedly put the energy out there..has worked in the past.
Female relationships: a little scared of intimacy…probably trust issues.
Work: bored at work…need to formulate a business I’m passionate about.
For me this grey zone is uni. Full engagement in my studies is situational and I’m not quite sure to how to be more consistent in that regard.
I know this zone well…it used to be my whole life.
Not quite sure what zone I’m in now – definitely not grey zone, maybe the biting off more than I can chew and chewing like all hell zone.
Right now my life consists almost only of work and sleep, with little time to think about what’s going on inside me.
This may and may not be a good thing. At least it means I’m not idle (which is where the grey zone grows from)and I don’t dwell much on anything due to a simple lack of time, but it also means I am starting to lose my sense of direction, because I haven’t given myself the opportunity to reflect on the big ‘Why?’
I guess the whole point is focus. Whether you are working hard or not at all, you will still be in the grey zone if you lack focus.
In my case, I need to refocus on my whole purpose.
I started working in real estate because I really wanted to make a change in the industry, then I lost myself in the sheer amount of fucking work I need to do.
I think I am missing something.
Thoughts?
Hmm Ben it not the same in the groups without you, but it seems that at least you are extremely focused at the moment and knowing your persistence, its unquestionable that you will leave your own mark on the industry. Tho I am glad to see you on posting on here.
In regards to refocusing, I think because of your persistence and hard work attitude (Germans!) there is a risk of getting lost in the forest between the trees rather than occasionally raising above it to see where you ultimately going.
However I am not worried about you. At the end of the day what you are doing is your passion, but if you’d like to refocus and maybe bounce ideas around just let me know.
Hey,
I was unsure if I was on the right track with this and didn’t completely understand it. Thus neglecting to post.
From what was gathered of this post I don’t really believe I have a grey zone.
YES obviously I’m not perfect but from young I always had the beleif that if you are going to do something and embark on it something which you choose, do it the best you can with all your might. Or else don’t do it at all.
80% of the things i do are forceful the other 20% are just obligations this is where my grey zone might be in doing those must be done jobs which you loath
I’m a bit behind, but a 5 day break over easter has allowed me to really put things back into perspective.
Ironically, the trend of this post has been consistent with my own grey zone issues, in that, often I will get caught up in the politics and day to day bullshit ie: focusing on getting the job done so I can go home early, avoiding tasks so an 8hr day doesn’t become a 12hr day etc. In recent times my job has spanned the 50+hr/wk bracket and it had left me with little or no energy to proactively approach my true goals.
The nature of my work has lead me into a bulk scheduling mentally, in that I’d rather set aside 5hrs once a week, rather than half an hour everyday. In doing this, it decreases my productivity because I am always relying on one facet of my life to completely stop, whilst I tend to the other.
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