WHY JUST STOPPING IS SO POWERFUL,
BUT VERY, VERY QUICK
For a more indepth understanding
"Give me all the powerful, instant productivity increasers and stop giving me all this piddly little 'just stop' stuff!"
Uh, well, perhaps, I had better explain how getting rid of all these power-reducers will increase your net power, your net ability to produce more of what you want.
And that they could be more powerful than all the other productivity increasers combined...
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LET'S START WITH THE MOST OBVIOUS...
A simpler, more obvious one that you "already know" would be to stop watching any TV as it is a low use of time that takes up time for higher level activities. Just doing that one thing can increase productivity dramatically.
Perhaps not so obvious is looking at the time we spend keeping up with the news, as if we could have any effect on the horrible accidents and tragedies that occur or politics or world events! Why would I want to watch the same things over and over? Surely there is no benefit to that!? How can it benefit me to know about accidents and shootings - repeats of the same-o, same-o? Perhaps a concise summary - perhaps a quick read of news in general, maybe a Friday PBS news program. (But definitely don't read the Sunday paper!)
But how many of us spend time with people where there is no benefit and no net payoff? Wouldn't we benefit considerably by being around people who are more supportive and more of a positive influence? Wouldn't that affect our "spirit"? And in so affecting our spirit on the upside haven't we actually produced a desired "life product" (to feel good, better)? Won't we have more energy and a better cumulative balance in our emotional tank that will make it easier to do other things, especially things that can only be done with better energy and mood?!!
How big an impact would that have?
After all my studies, I believe that just that would have a great effect just by itself.
What effect would it have if you only took certain calls and stop letting who calls you dictate your life?
What effect would it have if you simply chose not to read a book, because you scanned it ahead of time and saw that it wasn't so good - or that you should read only certain chapters and skip the rest of the stuff?
What if you stopped reading all the garbage (or low value stuff) that came across your path, stopped perusing catalogs when you didn't need to buy anything, stopped reading very low or no value magazine articles, stopped reading the newspaper?
What would happen to you if you simply ignored that which was not at all relevant to you, stuff that was just distracting, stuff that was taking attention away from what mattered? (Just look down the list of items and imagine what the cost is of doing those and getting no real payoff? See Just Stop! No More! lists.)
AND THEN THERE'S THE SUBTLE UNSEEN EFFECTS...
Engaging in negatives, putting your attention on making people wrong and judging them, allowing yourself to say negative things about yourself, trying to control others where it is a fruitless endeavor that often even irritates them - the energy sink in those is immense - plus the practice of them is a practice that is the opposite of a forward, positive, progressive, powerful way of living life.
What is the cost of that?
Immense!
If we try to persuade people, to convince them of our viewpoint, what is the use of that? Who cares? How often do you really succeed? Doesn't it end up feeling bad or even argumentative and combative?
How can you say that gossiping has anything but a negative value, besides the time it takes? Doesn't it help groove in an attitude of negativity where we look for what is wrong and get a bang out of making others wrong?
Complaining is similar, but it also grooves in being a victim or thinking like a victim would think. How could that be anything but super harmful?!!!
Paying attention to the mistakes of others has zero benefit to us - what positive can we make of their mistakes? Can we benefit them? What has been your experience with how effective that is? So why do you even allow yourself to continue it at all?!!!
We try to control people but never seem to see that we are not effective at it or that it can be harmful. Just stopping 90% of that would free up alot of energy and surely make our relationships better!
BUT THE BIGGEST OF THEM ALL, BLATANT BUT OFTEN UNSEEN...
The thing that takes the most time and ruins the feelings and confidence and progress of ourselves and others is the simple, unproductive, harmful, useless, and wrong practice of placing blame and finding fault, and getting angry and resentful in the process (hurting relationships also), and criticizing others and ourselves - but it all does no good and it creates a lot of fear, primarily of criticism or from fearing inadequacies because "so much is wrong with me". We spend so much of our time in life trying to be "enough", enough to not feel so unpowerful and unapproved of, trying to offset the negative feedback that we get.
But all of this harm is simply needless and unnecessary and invalid. It is based on a really primitive, childish, wrong belief that punishment of others or ourselves is that way to get people to do things. And the weapon we use makes us feel really, really bad, often feeling like giving up or escaping by distracting ourselves and doing something that has no value or is harmful (drinking, drugs, soft addictions like TV or eating).
People just don't see that there is no basis for faulting another or oneself. There is no fault per se, there is only a "not yet knowing" that is sufficient to have us do better.
Of course, my stating that basic truth probably hasn't convinced you of it, but I hope that you will consider the possibility of it being true such that you will read why it is true in the piece Why There Is No Fault and related pieces. Imagine how much better your life (and stress level) would be if you did not criticize yourself or pummel yourself for mistakes. Imagine how much better your relationships would be if you did not criticize or resent others. Wouldn't that alone make your life alot better? I mean alot better, not just a bit better!
And you cannot imagine, for now, how much greater a person's life can be when he/she has freed up all that negative energy and attention and creates huge benefits by focusing that energy and attention on positive payoffs, that in turn make oneself feel even better.
The net effect is life changing. Learn why this is true and must be applied in life.
ADD THESE ALL TOGETHER...
If you add all these together, they will most likely equal or exceed the benefits of all the things you could learn about increasing your productivity and saving time.
I recommend that you spend enough time on the "just stop" tactics and strategies that you do in fact stop doing them all - and I mean all of them, as all of them pay off.
