Bye, bye busy — find more time for what matters
“There’s this perception that if you worry a lot and if you look really busy and stressed out then you’ll be more successful. You talk about how little sleep you get and how tensed you are and how you’re not getting the appreciation you deserve and how hard you’re working. You think this is somehow feeding into your success and your career, and that’s just not true. Any success that you have in your career is despite your being all bothered and annoyed and stressed out - not because of it.”
~ Nancy Mayer
Busyness is a common ailment of many of my clients (and friends and family and even something that afflicts me from time to time). In fact, many people experience busyness as a chronic condition. This busyness in turn contributes to other dis-eases:
- stress
- lack of self-awareness
- disconnection from what is personally meaningful
- less than optimal relationships
- poor physical health
How to make time for what matters most to you
If you’re truly ready to give up the frantic rush and create a life where you have more “free” time, you must determine why you like being busy. Yes, you’re busy because you like it, no matter what you say to the contrary. If you weren’t getting some payoff from the busyness, you wouldn’t choose to be busy. So the first step in becoming less busy is to identify why you’re busy now–in other words, find the source(s) of your busyness.
Below are ten common reasons people are living busy lives (personalized so you can read them and see if they ring true for you). Look through the list and identify the top 2-3 sources of your hurry scurry life. Then, start taking steps to eliminate those busyness-inducing-factors from your life (If you need help, consider hiring me as your coach.)
- I have difficulty saying no.
- I have good reasons for not delegating or sharing certain tasks.
- I procrastinate.
- I take on a lot of responsibility.
- I easily get distracted from the task at hand.
- I’m avoiding something/someone by keeping busy.
- I tend to underestimate how much time or effort a project might need.
- I really do function best under pressure.
- I’m an idea person/creative-type/entrepreneur.
- I lack structure or organization.
“I think God’s going to come down and pull civilization over for speeding.”
~ Steven Wright
What’s the number one reason that you’re so busy? Are you ready to start pursuing a less busy life?
No Comments »
RSS feed for comments on this post.
| TrackBack URI
You can also bookmark
this on del.icio.us or check the cosmos
