Are You Busy, or Are You Addicted to “Being Busy”?
There’s no greater power than knowing yourself in a world characterised by uncertainty, chaos and destruction.
“Most of us in this age spend our most valuable hours being busy being busy.”
This quote from Robin Sharma’s The 5AM Club resonated deeply with me and you might discover it quite relatable, too.
What separates those who are really at peace with themselves is not only the knowledge of who they are, but also having a strong commitment to improving each day.
Within them there’s a deep stillness. There’s also a deep desire to get better every single day, for the sake of being better human beings — for themselves, for their loved ones, for the universe.
What makes people stand out with their courage to try again is not necessarily a desire to gain approval or fans, but rather a need rooted somewhere deep within them to elevate their self in the pursuit of growth.
The power of your character can withstand any challenge as long as you are aware of your strengths and weaknesses, for all of us have plenty of each.
But you can’t start improving yourself if you are too scared to look within and discover who you are — or rather, who you’ve become over the years leading to this very moment of you reading this post.
And this leads me to my point, are you busy or are you addicted to “being busy” because you’re afraid to get to know who you are?
Here are 3 reasons we like to stay busy.
We stay busy to maintain our sense of control.
The outside world is unpredictable and chaotic. So is our inner world until we decide to bring order to our thoughts and actions.
But to make real difference in the outer world we need to first become masters at bringing order to our inner world, which requires a lot of patience, consistency and repetition.
Most people give up quire early in the process of developing those crucial skills or habits.
What’s left then is the idea that being busy means being in control. So we take a piece of paper and a pen and create to-do lists. As we tick off the items, we are rewarded with a sense of order and accomplishment.
Yet what we’re missing is the bigger picture and whether these “small wins” truly contribute to what we want to achieve. In most cases, they don’t.
We spend so much time working to tick items off our to-do lists, but we don’t dedicate enough time to question whether these were the most important tasks to include in the list in the first place.
We stay busy as a way to avoid responsibility.
Each of us has limited reserves of time and energy. We can only commit to a small number of tasks, goals and challenges; or we’ll go crazy.
If we’re not selective enough, we will be committing our time and energy (and often money) on the wrong priorities.
Saying “yes” to the wrong things often means saying “no” the right things.
Saying “yes” to other people sometimes means saying “no” to ourselves.
It can be difficult to reclaim our power when we realise we’ve committed to the wrong people or projects. But it’s the only way to truly take back the control over our life.
People sometimes play the “victim” card by relocating responsibility and making it seem as if they don’t have a choice.
“Hey, how can you blame me if I wasn’t there?”
“Well, I didn’t choose this, my boss is making me…”
“Look, if it was up to me, I would totally do things differently…”
But here’s the ultimate truth. We always have a choice — to do things better, to do things differently, to change things, to move on, to forgive, to elevate from our circumstances, to be the hero or heroine of our story.
We stay busy thinking this is the way to live with purpose.
What’s your vision for the future? Where do you see yourself in 5 or 10 years? Who’s standing beside you? Will the choices you are making today help you get to that future? What are you willing to change to become the version of yourself that can bring the vision of your future into reality?
Just because you’re busy doesn’t mean that you’re progressing in life.
From meaningless checklists and meaningless conversations to endless distractions, life by default is designed to help you stay in your comfort zone.
Sure, our ancestors stayed in packs, moved and hunted together, but their only mission was to procreate and ensure that their genes get passed onto the next generation. They didn’t dream of publishing books or growing their companies to the Fortune 500 list.
Are you living to leave something behind, or are you just existing among the others?
Do you know who you are and what’s your gift to the world, or you are okay with living in ignorance and mediocrity?
Whether you are a carpenter who assists people in feeling more at home, or a teacher who helps educate the future leaders, or a cleaner who knows the importance of living without clutter, you have the power to bring order to the chaos on any given day.
No matter how small your contribution, when it’s aligned to your own mission, over time you will make tremendous progress in your personal journey that will in turn influence an outside change.
When you discover your purpose and use it to make the world a better place, you will become a better human being in the process, and vice versa.
And when you know your purpose, you will spend your time being busy on the right priorities on any given day.
It’s time to get busy with what matters the most.
The clock is ticking… But your schedule, possessions or accomplishments do not define your value.
Your value is inherent. It’s who you are as much as who you choose to be.
Your value shines brightest in your choices that reveal your personality to others better than your words could ever communicate.
When you know who you are and you’re at peace with yourself, your thoughts, words and actions will be in alignment. When you’re in true alignment with yourself, you will become in true alignment with the universe.
Even if time cannot stop or slow down, when you make the best use of every day, you will find that one lifetime is all that it takes to bring to reality your boldest dreams and accomplish the goals that belong to your vision of the future.
