🧘♂️ Turns out, being a champion isn’t about speed, strength, or IQ anymore. Nope — in South Korea, glory comes from doing absolutely nothing. Welcome to the annual Space-Out Competition, a contest where people sit still, stay silent, and try not to pass out (or check Instagram) for 90 minutes.

Yes, friends, this is literally competitive nothingness.

🎨 The Origin Story: When Doing Nothing Became Art

Created in 2014 by mixed-media artist Woopsyang, the competition pokes fun at society’s obsession with “go, go, go” by celebrating “stop, stop, stop.”

• 90 minutes.

• No phones.

• No chit-chat.

• No sleep.

It’s like mindfulness meets boredom endurance… judged by strangers with clipboards.

Even the New York Times covered the event — proving the world’s finally ready for the day when sitting motionless becomes an Olympic event.

🏆 How Do You Even Win at Nothing?

The Goal: Stay calm, motionless, and zombie-like.

The Scoring System:

• 🫀 Steadiest Heart Rate → measured like you’re on a weird medical game show.

• 🙌 Audience Votes → because nothing says objectivity like strangers deciding you’re “the best at nothing.”

Disqualifications:

• Move too much? Out.

• Talk? Out.

• Check your phone? Double out.

• Breathe too enthusiastically? Still technically allowed, but suspicious.

Check out the Space-Out Competition's own website.

🧠 Why It Exists

• Burnout Cure: South Korea is notorious for stress. This is a countercultural way to just… chill.

• Reclaim Downtime: Because apparently sitting on your couch watching Netflix doesn’t count as “intentional nothing.”

Versions of the event have popped up in Japan, China, and the Netherlands. Sadly, my living room doesn’t qualify — my spouse would walk in and ask, “Are you seriously just sitting there?” Yes. It’s training.

Psychologists agree: sometimes the best productivity hack is literally doing nothing — a fact finally validated by an actual competition.

🪷 Training for Nothing: My Master Plan

1. Consult the Experts: A neuroscientist, a Zen teacher, and maybe a Buddhist monk. (Avoid my spouse at all costs — they always want me to “do something.”)

2. Breathe: Wait… isn’t breathing doing something? Uh oh.

3. Cry About Breathing: Also technically “doing something.” Double fail.

4. Find the Silver Lining: If I’m doing nothing, at least I’m not robbing a bank, arguing online, or doomscrolling. Win-win.

5. Empty My Mind: But wait—emptying it is still doing something. Mind officially blown.

⚔️ The Real Struggle

Doing nothing sounds easy until you try. The enemies:

• Societal Pressure: Productivity = virtue. Inactivity = lazy bum.

• Animal Impulse: The brain screams: Do something! Anything!

• Inner Thoughts: With no distractions, it’s just you and your brain’s 3AM playlist of embarrassing memories.

• Productivity Addiction: Yes, it’s real. And no, answering emails while “resting” doesn’t count.

🎬 How to Start Small

• Baby Steps: Schedule 5 minutes of deliberate nothing. (Watching Seinfeld doesn’t count, but it’s close.)

• Reframe: Rest isn’t wasted time; it’s like charging your iPhone… except you’re the phone. But does rest qualify as... Nothing?

• Embrace Awkwardness: Sitting still feels weird at first — but so did TikTok. Look at it now.

• Self-Compassion: You won’t win Olympic gold in Nothing on day one. Practice makes perfectly pointless.

📚 Books on Nothing (Yes, They Exist)

• Do Nothing by Celeste Headlee (ironically, a whole book about nothing).

• How to Do Nothing by Jenny Odell (spoiler: it’s harder than it sounds).

• My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Ottessa Moshfegh (inactivity: the novel).

So if you need “inspiration,” even literature has gone there.

🤪 Silly Side Notes (Because Nothing Deserves Everything)

• Write a novel about a hero who triumphs… by napping.
  

• Poem: “Ode to a Couch Cushion.”

• Art installation: A chair. Empty. Title: The Champion.

• Screenplay: Fast & the Furious: Sitting Still.
  

• Training montage (in slow motion): stretching, yawning, then… sitting back down.

• Mock competition at home: convince your cat or spouse to vote on who spaces out best.
  

• Endless skit potential: “Training Montage for Doing Nothing.”

• Live “mock competition” with your audience voting.

• Tutorials: “How to Do Nothing Like a Pro in 3 Steps”.

• A series: “Nothing Diaries, Day 1… Day 90.”

The irony writes itself.

⚠️ Final Disclaimer

We’re not doctors, monks, or heart-rate monitors. We’re just trying to win at literally nothing. If you fall asleep during this article, congratulations — you’re already halfway to gold. 🥇🛋️ 

🧭 Want More Like This?

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💪 Strength and Cardio: The Two Surprising Keys to Living Longer
🧬 Consult our upcoming guide to biohacking without becoming a cyborg (yes, exactly, it's still upcoming.)