It is not enough to be busy. So are the ants.
The question is: what are we busy about.
— Henry David Thoreau


Dear friends:

I’m excited about my new book LESS; Accomplishing More By Doing Less, coming out in mid-February. It contains antidotes to busyness, and practices for how to live a more calm, meaningful, and productive life. The idea for the book began as a talk I gave a few years ago to a group of business leaders – on how busy everyone seems to be, how much we miss and overlook, and the benefits of seeing the world through the lens of “less.” I enjoyed researching and writing about:
• issues of effort and effortlessness
• the relationship of fear and busyness
• how our views about time influence us
• exploring how our stories and ideas around accomplishment hinder or help us
The book addresses how easily we confuse activity with productivity, and provides tools and practices for undoing these habits.

I was reading part of the book last night, after not looking at it for several weeks, and said to myself, “interesting, this is a good book.” Even my wife thinks it’s a good book. (And she has very high standards.)

I had a life-changing “incident” a few weeks ago – I was sitting on my living room couch, minding my own business, sipping a glass of red wine. I felt a small jolt of pain in my heart; strong enough to get my attention. Then, I began to feel woozy, lightheaded, and was soon unconscious. A few minutes later, I was just fine; and I felt that everything was different. It’s one thing, being a Zen teacher, to speak, teach, and write about life and death; and another to experience the thin veil between being conscious and not being conscious; the edge of life and death that we all live on. I’m seeing the world through fresher, more appreciative eyes.

This incident is much like one of the practices from LESS – imagine you have died and now you have returned to being alive – what would you do differently; how does this second chance influence you? How can we live with less fear, less assumptions, less distractions, and less resistance to change; how to live with passion and compassion, and how to be in touch with and accomplish what is most important.

The last chapter of my book is called, “Finding The One Who Is Not Busy” – exploring ways in which we can be fully engaged in the world, and not be caught up in busyness.

I wish you much peace and happiness, and accomplishment (with less unnecessary effort) in 2009!

Marc

To order LESS on Amazon, click here

I'm pleased to announce my new and improved ZBA Associates website. It has my updated schedule, and the bio of my first official Associate. Upcoming events include:

Feb. 7 - Company Time, with Norman Fischer at Green Gulch
10:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.
Feb. 20 - SF Zen Center, Book Reading, 7:30 p.m.
Feb. 21 - SF Zen Center, Talk, 10:00 a.m.
Feb. 25 - Gateway Books, Santa Cruz, 7:00 p.m.
Feb. 26 - Readers Books, Sonoma, 7:00 p.m.
March 1 - Green Gulch Farm, Talk, 10:00 a.m.
March 19 - Copperfields, Sebastopol, 7:00 p.m.
March 22 - Book Passage, Corte Madera, 4:00 p.m.
March 28 - East West Books, Mountain View, 7:30 p.m.
April 4 - Warmhearted Leadership - 3 month study group
April 18 - Accomplishing More By Doing Less, 1 day workshop
Green Gulch Farm
May 1-3 - Weekend workshop, Mayacamas Ranch, Calistoga,
Accomplishing More By Doing Less

Details are on my website.

Check out the ZBA Associates website

Please take a look at, and post your comments, on my new blog, www.accomplishingmorebydoingless.com: Tools and practices for living a more calm, meaningful, and productive life.

Click here to see my BLOG