THE BOLD (Busy, Busy, Busy):
Your friend asks you, “How have you been?” and you immediately reply, “Busy.” What your friend (usually) doesn’t ask is, “Busy doing what?” Perhaps your friend should ask you that.
The Whisper: (Everyone is Busy, So What Are We Pretending Not To See?):
“But,” said the little boy, unaware that he should gratify the Emperor, “He isn’t wearing any clothes.”
Are you busy? It seems to be the anthem of the age. We are too busy to take care of ourselves. We are too busy to RSVP, let alone attend the events to which we are invited. We are too busy to notice our children growing up. We are busy, busy, busy.
Why?
Somewhere we got the notion that by doing more we would get more done. It seems logical, doesn’t it? But is that really our experience of the busy treadmill?
Reading, sorting, filing, answering and fretting over email replaces thoughtful engagement. Meetings called by the unprepared spin off into conversations that only apply to a small portion of the project, that only involve a fraction of the participants. A dull, achy haze descends over us as we struggle to work for a prescribed period of time rather than towards a desired result.
Our culture and our institutions venerate those who are busy. “If you want something done, ask a busy person.” In some organizations, the workers are taught by example to be, or at least to appear, busy in order to secure their position and telegraph their commitment.
The question, though, is, “Busy doing what?” Are the actions in which you are investing your time simple vibration, pushing out in every direction but not driving motion forward? Or are you carefully selecting your activities?
When we pursue busy work, acting to seem active or to fill time or to click off meaningless items from an ill conceived to do list, we are paying court to an Emperor clad in nothing–busy-ness (just to be busy) is unpleasant and does not enhance our lives. It is, however, a hard habit to break. The people around us reinforce and reward this damaging pattern and our own fears undermine our determination to seek peace.
Where Is Your Work Taking You?
The antidote to the busy phenomenon, however, is not to be less active. It is to be more intentional, to make careful choices about the activities that we undertake. If we seek to do good work, to have good outcomes or build relationships, to renew and grow, we can make choices that support those commitment–to be beneficial not just busy. If busy is a treadmill that exhausts us but deposits us right where we started, beneficial is footsteps on a longer path–we may stray to the left of right, but we end up somewhere new. We may be just as tired and just as active but we will lead lives that are richer.
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