I'm too busy

Are we willing to prioritize our wants and needs to be at our best? We can't expect to give all we have if we haven't done the work to replenish ourselves to have something to give in the first place.

I'm too busy—a common expression in our culture.

We're too busy to go for a walk, do a meditation, take two minutes to breathe mindfully, cook a healthy meal, read a fiction book for fun, relax, take on a hobby, or do something unproductive.

Our schedules are constantly overrun with meetings, engagements, things to do; constantly bombarded, often by everyone else's priorities.

When that goes on long enough, we begin to believe that it's just the way it is, that we have no control over our schedule. Although, that's never the whole truth.

When we take an honest look at the key moments where new entries are added to our schedule, we might discover a behaviour that lets it happen. We might not want to see it, acknowledge it, but it's there, living within us.

When we're willing to look, we might discover and befriend that behaviour. We might notice that it exists to satisfy a need within us. We might even give that part of us a name such as the Busy Beaver. The Busy Beaver is always hard at work, providing for its family, never taking any time off for itself. Just acknowledging it might be enough for us to regain a sense of balance.

Actual productivity enables us to optimize our time to do more things that bring us joy and happiness and help us become better people, not just do more things that keep us busy. Busy and productivity are not synonymous. Is the Busy Beaver keeping us busy, or are we genuinely productive?

We have to be willing to prioritize our wants and needs to be at our best. We can't expect to give all we have if we haven't done the work to replenish ourselves to have something to give in the first place. That could mean saying yes to downtime and saying no to adding something else to our schedules. 

Next time you think, sense or hear yourself say you're too busy or you don't have enough time, take a moment to look at your calendar and notice your Busy Beaver at work. Is what's on your calendar truly enabling you to create the changes you seek to make? Is it truly meaningful to you? Is it contributing to your happiness?

We might have become insanely good at keeping ourselves busy, but along the way, have we lost our ability to recognize when we're no longer prioritizing what is meaningful to us?

Miguel,
Sparknotion – Think Differently.