By: Rachel Jensen
"How are you doing?"
"How've you been?"
"What's new?"
From here on out, we declare that "Busy" is no longer an acceptable answer!
Because your life is filled with errands, meetings, chores and tasks does not mean that life is a fulfilling one.
Why does our society glorify that to be busy is to be a productive member of society and therefore worthy? I'm sure the good ol' Protestant work ethic plays a role in this, but being busy is increasingly harming our psyche.
We are tired, tapped out. By packing our days to the gills we are teaching ourselves how to be uncomfortable with quiet, solitude and contemplation. Doing something for the sake of "doing" does not a happy life make. Your time is too valuable and your life too precious to whittle your life away task by lackluster task.
Instead, can we please focus on the quality of our tasks and the efficiency with which we perform them? Can we work on not judging others or ourselves for taking a full hour to stare at the ceiling and daydream and learn to simply sit with our own thoughts?
How about we change how we evaluate the productivity of our day not by the number of items we cross off our to-do list but by the connections we make and the feelings of joy, satisfaction and contribution we feel at the end of the day? Better yet, how about we go through those pesky to-do lists and commit to throwing at least half of them out the window!
Don't get me wrong, I think we should always strive to create, contribute and participate. But hell, let's admit that we make a lot of busy work for ourselves in order to keep up appearances and give value to our time.
Being too busy to live the rest of your life is not an accomplishment, and you deserve far better. Let's all take a moment to take a breath and reframe our thoughts to focus on what we can be doing to cut out the "busy" and insert the fulfilling.
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