Productive should be a four letter word.

Ok just kidding, it’s obviously not. but it should be.

Way too many people come to me to coach them because they want to be more productive.

Why do people want to be more productive?

Sometimes I ask people how being productive will make them feel. Being productive is not a feeling. It’s an adjective to describe resulting in or providing a large amount or supply of something. But we want to feel the emotions productivity gets us: pride, satisfied, worthy, respected, valued, etc. Being productive is also rewarded in our culture. Somewhere early in our western world lives we learn that doing more (and perhaps doing more in less time) makes us worthy of love, respect, and acceptance.

There might be another reason we want to be more productive. We get a hit of dopamine when we accomplish a task. Who wouldn’t want that?

But what if instead of wanting to be more productive we searched for being in a flow state?

Being in flow is a hit of dopamine plus four other hormones. Isn’t more better?

Or perhaps what if we asked ourselves why in this moment of wanting to be productive do we not feel accepted and worthy of love and respect?