“Only after a person declines to do certain things can they be capable of action.” The line appears as the whole of section eight in “Li Lou II” of Mencius, without a narrative lead-in. “Not doing” does not mean doing nothing; it means refusing some actions. “Only after” makes a boundary the condition of meaningful action.
Today, the sentence need not become a productivity slogan. Refusing what violates a principle, setting aside what is unnecessary, and admitting that time cannot contain everything are different judgements. Its restrained value is this: choosing to act also includes choosing not to act. Without that choice, busyness may not amount to genuine action.
https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/孟子/離婁下
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