Seeking The True Potential Of The Idle Mind

We’ve heard this quote several times, especially when people watch us sitting around and doing nothing –

“An idle man’s brain is the devil’s workshop.”

~John Bunyan

“Always be doing something. Get a job, work all day, come back home, have your food, read a book, do this, do that…! On the weekends, do not rest, go out, meet people, talk, or attend conferences. Always keep yourself busy.”

Oh my! That seems like an awful lot of things to do in such a short time. The thought alone exhausts me to the point of giving up. Do we really have to be doing something all the time?

Here’s another scenario – how would you feel if you saw a person sitting, glued to their mobile screen, in a garden under a huge sheltered tree? It’s a sunny and bright morning. The cool breeze can make anyone just sit there and relax but the person is still glued to their mobile screen.

What a waste to be distracted by a mobile when surrounded by the divinity of nature.

What would you do if you were sitting under a tree? Personally, I would leave my mobile at home. I would not want to waste the opportunity to bask in the glory of nature.

We now live in a world where distractions keep us busy. We have no time for productive exploration which means we have no time to dream, wander, and reflect.

If you notice the two contrasting aspects of idleness and distractions that I just narrated above, you might feel pulled into two directions. We are either looked down upon for doing nothing or praised and complimented for borderline insane multitasking.

Aristotle once said that the soul never thinks without a picture. Hope is the dream of a waking man.

When we think, we must focus on thinking and reflecting. But these days, with the fast-paced life, we fail to just be and do nothing sometimes. It’s just the incorrect way of doing things unless you are on a short leash of a time limit. But we are often used to rushing everything even when we have free time.

This is where Aristotle goes beyond the process of simply thinking or imagining. He touches upon hope, highlighting its connection with imagination. Hope is not merely a passive state of wishful thinking; it involves actively envisioning a desired future. It’s like dreaming while awake, where we imagine possibilities. This hopeful dreaming can motivate us to take action and pursue our goals, which I would refer to as Exploitation.

But is exploitation a bad thing? Not when you use it for a particular view and go deeper into what you want to achieve as a leader. Exploitation is not to be looked at from the perspective of grabbing benefits at the expense of others. It is not meant to adjust your level of convenience at the expense of the convenience of others. But why am I talking about Exploitation?

The oscillation between exploration and exploitation

Sophie: “Back off, Aggie! This is my happy ending.”

Agatha: “So, this is how you change the world? This is what you always wanted? To simply have it all at your feet?”

Sophie: “Yup. The only mistake I made was thinking I needed to switch schools. It was just the schools that needed to switch.”

Agatha: “The mistake you made was thinking you needed any of this. Look at what it has done to us. Sophie, Rafal is the enemy. We have to defeat him.”

Sophie: “I’d rather defeat my nemesis.”

The School for Good and Evil is a typical fairytale movie but it has an interesting concept to share. Sophie and Agatha were best friends in a small village. But Sophie wanted a different life from the one she lived. She was unable to appreciate the things she already had in life. So, she dreamed and had higher ambitions. Nothing wrong with that! However, while she aspired to move out of town and study in the School for Good, she was instead forced to join the School for Evil.

Sooner than she could understand, Sophie started to develop evil tendencies. Her mind was filled with thoughts of destruction and chaos. Was it her idle mind or was it just the way she was manipulated by the evil wizard in the movie?

Sophie wasn’t sitting idle and yet she developed evil desires whereas her best friend, Agatha developed positive and goodwill desires. But neither of them was sitting idle, and therefore, developed a certain way of thinking based on their inner strengths, qualities, and circumstances. This means that an idle mind is not necessarily the reason for developing negative thoughts or worse. You may as well develop such thoughts while you are busy. It is because of the level of one’s SiQ or Spiritual Quotient that defines the strength of your idle mind.

If you have a high SiQ, your idle mind can practice disengaged engagement. This means you can disengage from the chaos around you and explore the various facets and possibilities of doing things. You can also decide when you wish to engage and focus on taking action based on your decisions. So, you develop the ability to practice disengaged engagement (idle mind – explorative thinking) and engaged engagement (busy mind – focused thinking) when you choose.

Therefore, an idle mind is like a blank page in a book. It’s when your brain is quiet and you’re not actively thinking about anything.

But it’s not always bad. People often think of an idle mind as a bad thing, like a playground for negative thoughts. But this isn’t always true. It depends on how you use it.

High-SiQ leaders use their idle minds differently. People with high SiQ (Spiritual Quotient) know how to use their idle minds in a good way. They don’t let negative thoughts fill their minds. Instead, they use this time to explore and think creatively.

Two ways to use your mind: High-SiQ leaders use two ways to think:

1. Exploration: This is like exploring a new place. You’re open to new ideas and possibilities.

2. Exploitation: This is like using what you’ve learned. You take your ideas and put them into action.

So, an idle mind can be a good thing. If you have a high SiQ, your idle mind can be a place for new ideas and solutions. It’s not a bad thing, but a tool you can use to your advantage.

Hence, we must appreciate the beauty of the mind and never let ourselves believe that we are slaves to its idleness. Here is a beautiful poem called ‘The Beauty of the Mind’ written by Michael E Cantrall that sums it up:

The beauty of the mind waits not

for the nightingale in spring

sweet fact one has in ear its truth

and listens while it sings

the beauty of the mind waits not

for a songbird’s melody

the beauty of the mind creates

and nothing waits to be