Doing nothing is dangerous

Changing Perspectives
Rutendo Gwatidzo

THE threat of life!

Life is full of risky events which expose us to different experiences, but one should always fight to avoid DOING NOTHING.

The greatest threat in life is spending time doing nothing. Doing something costs something but doing nothing can cost even more.

I sat down at home one day feeling a little discouraged, I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do, perhaps I had thought of doing nothing but because I am not so used to it, I then decided to get some inspiration from one of my mentors, Mr Arthur Marara, hence I visited his Facebook page.

As I opened his page, the first video that popped up was from September 2021 and it was titled “Doing nothing is dangerous.”

I got curious and I opened it.

It was a short clip. He didn’t say much but he gave one scenario that provoked me to look deeper into the subject matter.

He mentioned the story of David that is found in the book of Samuel 2:11.

This is when David was roaming around the roof of his house while others were at war.

He saw a woman bathing, and to cut the long story short, he arranged for the killing of the woman’s husband and he took the wife to himself.

What David did displeased the Lord.

This was the result of doing nothing while others were at war.

Doing nothing is actually doing something.

It is better to do anything than to do nothing.

After listening to that clip, I decided to do a research.

I realised that a significant number of people do things that they are not proud of, or things that they regret during the “nothing moments”.

One of the guys I interviewed mentioned that when he got bored he decided to park his car at the shops doing nothing.

He saw a beautiful lady passing by and admired her, the rest is history.

He then got entangled and the situation created a mess for him that he lives to regret.

One of the prominent guys mentioned that he had had a frustrating day and he decided to pass through a friend’s house.

He found the friend’s wife alone and decided to wait for the friend in the car while doing nothing.

The lady came to his car and started sharing the miserable issues she was having in her marriage.

In comforting her, one thing led to another and now the guy is in a big mess.

Different scenarios came up during my research.

Someone shared about how his son woke up not wanting to do anything.

The teenage boy had actually mentioned that he felt like doing nothing but, sadly, the next thing that he did was to commit suicide.

Another lady also shared how she started going through her sister’s things while doing nothing at home.

She came across a good amount of money and decided to make it hers.

Without thinking, she spoiled herself with shopping and two days down the line, the sister started looking for the money.

She did not admit to what she had done; sadly, the money belonged to the organisation where the sister worked.

To cut the long story short, the sister got fired.

Finding jobs is not as easy.

Life became tough because she was the bread winner and they ended up moving back to the parents’ home.

Doing nothing is actually doing something you don’t want to admit.

Inaction is action. Guard yourself!

Do not underestimate the cost of doing nothing.

Doing nothing brings people to places of misery.

Remember, we mentioned that doing nothing is actually doing something you do not want to get intentional about.

The problem with doing nothing is that you will not know when you are finished or when you have reached a limit so that you can stop. I have come across many young people, even mature ones who get involved in relationships that they refer to as nothing but they cost them a fortune.

It is better to take time to rest, relax, watch movies and do sight-seeing or window shopping, just to mention a few examples.

Being deliberate about how you spend your time will create agendas or goals in your mind which will guide and control you when you tend to get out of line.

When your mind knows that you are doing something, it will tend to automatically set limits than when doing nothing.

George Bernard Show once said, “A life spent making mistakes is not only honourable, but more useful than a life spent doing nothing.”

This simply means that it is better to intentionally try something and then fail than to end up doing anything unintentionally and then eventually you will be forced to become deliberate in cleaning up the mess.

Many ended up in jail or became victims to drugs due to doing nothing.

Do not force your mind to be idle by doing nothing; the mind was never created to be idle, hence forcing it to do so will cause it to react in unpleasant ways.

Do not expose yourself to anything by doing nothing. How about doing some social work or voluntary work if you do not have anything else to do?

How about talking to someone when you feel alone, bored and having nothing to do?

I know of a group of boys from this other church who go out to pray together during the week. They also clean people’s cars after service at church and in the process of doing so, they get something back.

At some point, I thought that they had nothing to do until I realised that they are actually doing something better than doing nothing.

I engaged them in a discussion and they told me how they spent time reading the Bible and looking for scriptures to challenge one another when they go to the prayer mountain.

They also shared strategies on how to clean cars after church service.

Do not wait for anyone to make you productive — rise up and do something.

You may start where you do not like, but in the process, you will find your path of interest.

Think about it!

The question I have to someone who says I have nothing to do is this: “Do you really do nothing when you have nothing to do or you do things that you are not willing to admit?”

Is it possible to spend time doing nothing?

A lot of things that we refer to as nothing are things we are not proud of.

Wake up, my friend, and take responsibility for your life.

Stop hiding behind a finger and begin to be accountable.

Do not burden the people around you and even more, yourself, by doing nothing.

Be challenged to rather fail at something but trying, than to spend life doing nothing.

Be encouraged to start being relevant from wherever you are.

Social or voluntary work is more relevant than many people know — do something.

Be inspired to be productive in a positive way.

Do not allow nothing to define you.

Rutendo Gwatidzo is an entrepreneur into corporate wear and interior designs. She is also an author of the book “Born to Fight”, speaker, mentor and HR consultant. She is driven by her motto “Born To Fight but Destine To Win.” Contact details: 0714575805/ [email protected] / Rutendo Gwatidzo official fb public page.