[bctt tweet=”When is the last time you did nothing? #mindfulness #success ” username=”ZachMercurio”]

Last week I did it and it was amazing. It felt like a drug I tried for the first time. Not that I’ve even tried a drug for the first time.

Here’s the story. I still can’t believe I actually did it.

On the day I did it I had “a day” as they say. I recorded a live webinar, had some weird conference calls, and wrote a mediocre blog post. Somewhere in there I managed to sprinkle the day with some rejection and failure.

And on this day the little-red-number addiction on my iPhone was so real. I checked it at least 10 times in a minute. I don’t even know why. For some reason I thought a Facebook notification could make me feel better. I guess that’s how addiction is.

It was one of those days.

My eyes felt heavy and burned. My brain felt like it was about to jump out of my head and take a long walk. I couldn’t decide if I wanted to take a nap or run a marathon. I don’t run marathons. I don’t run.

My brain was on overload. I was stressed.

That is when I did it.

I got in my car and drove to get my son from daycare. I know, crazy right?

But it was crazy.

I know I shouldn’t tell you this but sometimes I get so bored in traffic that I check my stupid phone at red lights. Every red light. Looking for little-red-numbers.

This time I didn’t. I drove. Which by the way is what you’re supposed to do if you’re driving.

The Sirius XM demo station was annoying so I shut it off. I threw my phone into the back seat.

Here’s when it started getting weird and awesome.

I actually felt what the steering wheel felt like — the cool, soft leather.

At stoplights I sat and watched. I saw the soft sunlight touching the snow-capped mountaintops to the west.

“I live here,” I thought.

I saw people crossing the street living lives as vivid and complex as my own. They were looking down at their own phones — probably looking for their own little-red-numbers.

At one stoplight I saw a school-aged girl with purple hair wearing all black. She awkwardly danced as she walked. She wore those old early 1990s adjustable wire metal earphones. She looked happy. It made me smile and think: Was she happy?

It was nice to think about the world again.

Then I turned into a carwash. Have you ever sat in an automatic car wash and not done anything? Do you think the tricolor foam actually does three different things?

It was nice to think about the world again.

As I pulled into daycare, I felt different. I felt part of the world again.

As my son ran up to me, I heard his pitter-pattering feet. And I actually felt his hug.

It was nice to feel the world again.

You should try it.

[bctt tweet=”You should stop doing everything and start doing nothing. #mindfulness ” username=”ZachMercurio”]