Stop! Go! Do less! Do more!

There is a scene in the movie Forgetting Sarah Marshall where Paul Rudd’s character, Chuck (who calls himself “Kunu”), is teaching Jason Segel’s character, Peter, how to surf. Kunu has Peter lying on a surfboard on the beach, and is doing his best version of instructing on the sand. The exchange goes something like this:

Kunu: “Don’t do anything. Do nothing.”

Peter does nothing

Kunu: “Let’s see you pop it up.”

Peter gets up from the board

Kunu: “That’s not it. Do less. Get down. Try less.”

Peter goes back down onto the board

Kunu: “Pop up. Do less. Do it again.”

Peter starts to get up from the board again

Kunu: “Don’t do anything. Nothing. Pop up.”

Peter just lies there, doing nothing

Kunu: “No, you’re just lying there. Pop up.”

The entire exchange is absurd, frustrating, and quite funny.

I have been on both sides of that conversation at one point or another in my life. I used to feel like Peter when I read about being an entrepreneur. And sometimes, still, when I am overtired, distractedly talking with someone, or just not really 100% sure what, exactly, I’m talking about, I feel like Kunu.

Maybe you’ve felt like Peter, too. Maybe even today. I think feeling like Peter comes from having access to so much information that we’ll take it from wherever it’s available to us, and often in contradictory terms, which can easily overwhelm or bewilder us.

“Eat this; never eat this.”

“Buy this now; actually, don’t waste your money on it.”

“You should (there’s that word "should” again); you should never…“

It’s a total headspin, isn’t it?

It really doesn’t have to be. Go ahead and read it all. Just don’t internalize all of it.

Here’s how I do it: I believe that everything happens exactly as it is meant to happen. I also believe that my life is my creation.

Where does that leave me? With a lot of peace, actually.

See, knowing that I am the architect of my life, I am now able to receive tons of information, knowing that I can either do something with it, or nothing, and either way, it’s totally fine.

So whether someone is telling me to stop, or to go, or to do it or to not do it, I know it’s ultimately up to me to make the final decision and take action (or not) around it. And that is so empowering.

Surf’s up!