Are you idle?

My friend Adam once told me a quote he had heard, that profoundly influenced my thinking about what I am about in life: 

"Failure is succeeding at something that is not important."  

Samuel Johnson, (my bathroom reading...I know: TMI) wrote an essay on the topic of "idleness" which rang some of the same bells.  Those of you who know me to be always planning and preparing will know which paragraph made me wince a little.

"There are some that profess idleness in its full dignity who call themselves the 'idle', as Busiris in the play 'calls himself the Proud'; who boast that they do nothing, and thank their stars that they have nothing to do; who sleep every night till they can sleep no longer, and rise only that exercise may enable them to sleep again; who prolong the reign of darkness by double curtains, and never see the sun but to 'tell him how they hate his beams' , whose whole labour is to vary the postures of indulgence, and whose day differs from their night but as a couch or chair differs from a bed. 

"But idleness predominates in many lives where it is not suspected, for being a vice which terminates in itself, it may be enjoyed without injury to others, and is therefore not watched like fraud, which endangers  property, or like pride which naturally seeks it gratification in another's inferiority. Idleness is a silent and peaceful quality, that neither raises envy by ostentation, nor hatred by opposition; and therefore nobody is busy to censure or detect it. 

"As pride sometimes is hid under humility, idleness is often covered by turbulence and hurry.  He that neglects his known duty and real employment, naturally endeavours to crowd his mind with something that may bar out the remembrance of his own folly, and does anything but what he ought to do with eager diligence, that he may keep himself in his own favour. 

"Some are always in a state of preparation, occupied in previous measures, forming plans, accumulating materials, and providing for the main affair.  These are certainly under the secret power of idleness.  Nothing is to be expected from the workman whose tools are for ever to be sought.  I was once told by a great master, that no man ever excelled in painting, who was eminently curious about pencils and colours. 

"There are others to whom idleness dictates another expedient, by which life may be passed unprofitably away without the tediousness of many vacant hours.  The art is, to fill the day with petty business, to have always something in hand which may raise curiosity, but not solicitude, and keep the mind in a state of action, but not of labour."

Citation,
Johnson, Samuel. Samuel Johnson: Selected Writings. "The Idler, No. 31, Saturday 18 November 1758." Penguin Books, England. 1968. Pages 215-216.