Productivity: is it your friend or foe?
Productivity can feel invigorating.
It feels sooo good to get things done, check it off your list, uplevel, have financial freedom, and expand.
My tightly intertwined relationship with being in productivity mode started in high school. I completed the prestigious International Baccalaureate Program…filling my schedule with college level courses and around the clock work. I loved it…It sounds so silly but I lived for working hard, studying, and getting good grades. Something about it was wildly satisfying.
After graduating high school, I went on to college, then dental school and finally residency. Soon after, I bought a practice and shifted my focus to the office.
Throughout it all the pattern was the same: work hard, create tangible external results (be it the perfect grades, increased financial production, number of cases that started per month, etc). I would go all in…burying myself in books, learning orthodontics, and playing mental games to solve each piece of the never ending puzzle.
I will admit, it was fun. But, it was shallow. And, more importantly, it wasn’t sustainable. I didn’t stop to come up for air…I didn’t pause to think, “Is this what I want? Is this aligned with my deeper, personal goals? Am I living off the ‘shoulds’ from someone else and from society? What does my body need for balance and sustainability?”
And so, as we all eventually do, I crashed.
I didn’t make it to the finish line, to retirement.
I felt burnt out. I couldn’t turn off my mind. I was anxious, wired, and generally dissatisfied. When I paused, I thought, “Is this what I will do the rest of my life? Is that REALLY what I want?”
Unfortunately, this story is not unusual. I am not unique or special. This is the water we swim in…success equals more money, work hard and then retire (if you make it that far without a heart attack), work 40 hours a week (or more), do what it takes, your mind is more important than your body.
The overarching message: PUSH.
How did we get to this place? In the book Slow Productivity Cal Newport describes how the 40-hour work week was adopted from factory work and Henry Ford’s findings in 1926. Leading up to that time, the Industrial Revolution and factory work led to increasingly longer hours. The 40 hour week was an attempt to contain factory work to the most productive and reasonable amount of time.
But what did humans do before the Industrial Revolution? What have we done for thousands, or even millions, of years before? As farmers we worked in annual cycles, tending heavily to crops for a particular season and then dropping into states of greater rest. Before that, as hunter gathers, we engaged even more deeply in cyclical work and pleasure. We hunted for a day, then rested for several. There was a balance. Like nature, we worked in cycles.
As factory work decreased, knowledge work increased. Knowledge workers are people who use their knowledge, skills, and thinking to solve problems, make decisions, or create ideas. They work with information instead of physical labor, and examples include doctors, engineers, teachers, and software developers. With a shift into this model the work week remained. We didn’t know how to define success and so we started to define it as being busy. If we could stay busy for 40 hours a week, we would demonstrate success. If we made more money, even better.
In dentistry, I see this on steroids. The forums, the continuing education often send the same message: be more productive, do more, make more, get more patients, add this extra thing to increase your collections.
Don’t get me wrong, money is important. A healthy practice needs to have proper income, growth and efficiency. But, I am here to give you this truth: there is more. The truth is this model of typical productivity is not the only way. It may be the loudest one in the room, but there can be much more satisfaction, authenticity and joy. You can honor your body’s needs. You can take time off for your newborn.
There is another way.
A way where we work hard and then rest. Where we ask our body what it needs daily, weekly and seasonly to restore. Where we drop in and engage with our intuition rather than solely our mind. Your business can be more. It can support you in your values, in the legacy you want to leave in the world. It can challenge you and create a space for you to expand. It can be beautiful AND hard AND soft AND exciting AND full of drive.
I learned the hard way. If you never stop, your body will eventually force you to. If you never check in, your heart will remind you. During one of my pivotal moments I got a therapeutic massage where my body had a chance to relax and speak to me. It spoke loud and clear: We want a change.
When was the last time you stopped? The last time you allowed your body space for rest and to tell you what it wants? After years of pushing, it can feel hard to do so. Perhaps you don’t know how. The good news is that your body never forgets. The wisdom is always there. We just need to stop, connect and listen.
We live in such an exciting time…One where we get to explore, to find our truth and experience the richness of life.
I leave you with this challenge.
Tonight, put on some headphones, find a soft, gentle song, and sit for a moment in stillness. You don’t have to force your body to bring you answers, but simply acquaint to listening. When you find that moment of stillness, drop in this question: Dear heart, what would you have me know?
Drop me a line if you’d like to share. Sending love and light.
XO,
Dr. Camden
