Our Busy Lives
“Beware the barrenness of a busy life.” -Socrates
We modern Americans have learned a lot in the last 10 or 20 years, especially since the advent of smartphones that put the internet (and our work email) in our hands 24/7. But we still have some things to learn about “being busy.” On one hand we know the real toll of mental and physical burnout. On the other hand, we wear “busy” as a badge of honor and don’t really know how to live any other way. After all, we do have stuff to do, things we want to accomplish.
One of the biggest problems with too much “busy” is that it confuses motion with progress. It gives you the illusion of moving forward. When you tell yourself you are “so busy”, it supports the notion that constantly shifting your focus is a prized skill. But some of our most important challenges require the opposite: focused attention and concentrated effort.
And, if you’re really on to yourself, you know you spend a certain percentage of time resisting what you need to do by worrying, procrastinating, complaining--not really doing the thing.
One of the most empowering things you can do for yourself is to cultivate the skill of paying attention and focusing your mind. The human brain is an extraordinary, powerful instrument. When you are skipping from one task to another without a focus on the outcome, you are missing out on your deep wisdom that can only come from a quiet, focused mind.
This starts with first gaining clarity about where you are going, what it is you really want to achieve, and what kind of a person you are striving to become on the way there. I think of it as taking time to set my GPS...imagine you are on a bicycle pedaling as fast as you can, out of breath and worried that you’re not even heading in the right direction. But if you took the time to get off the bike and look at a map, you could set your GPS and get in a car and get there faster.
Schedule time to plan your year, your week, your day. Set aside focus time each day where you commit to a finished outcome (a project, an outline, a creation of some kind) and then get it done no matter what. As part of your daily self care, establish a routine of journaling or meditating. And most important…..deliberately schedule free time to just be, knowing it is as important as any task on your calendar.
Paradoxically, this practice reduces your “busyness” and will have you living your life more deliberately. Your schedule reflects your choices and opens up your mind and spirit to who you really are, what you really want, and not just what you checked off your list today.
