A question has been stuck in my mind lately: “What would you do tomorrow if it was purely for your own enjoyment, if you couldn’t share it, talk about it, or benefit from it in any external way, even privately?” When I first encountered this question, the only things that initially came to mind were playing soccer or basketball, or just goofing around with my kids.
Wrestling with the addiction to productivity
My struggle with this question has revealed something deeper: an addiction to productivity. Even if I couldn’t share my day publicly or privately, my instinct would still be to fill it with activities that feel productive, working out, reading books, or practicing skills. These activities, while seemingly personal, still feed into external goals and eventual results.
It made me realize that my enjoyment and personal satisfaction are deeply intertwined with productivity. I rarely do something purely for joy, free from any external outcomes or future benefits.
Pursuing enjoyment without productivity
The idea of spending a day without any productive goals or outcomes, purely experiencing life without external validation or even internal productivity measures, feels uncomfortable. This discomfort highlights how deeply productivity has shaped my identity and how challenging it is for me to separate self-worth from productivity.
Maybe true authenticity and genuine enjoyment lie not in publicly sharing or privately being productive, but in simply allowing myself to exist, explore, and experience life without purpose or productivity.
I don’t have the answer yet, but I’m intrigued by the idea of living even a single day free from the addiction to productivity and the need for external results. Could I enjoy life purely for its own sake?
Could you answer this question clearly? What would you do tomorrow purely for your own enjoyment if productivity and external recognition didn’t matter?