Have you ever noticed that when you ask someone how they are, about 80% of the time they say, “busy?” Sometimes they will even roll their eyes, tilt their head back a bit with a sigh and say, “Oh I am so busy!” We have become a busy society where our worth is measured by just how busy we are. We wear “busy” like a badge. I have even heard people say, “oh she doesn’t know what busy is,” in a sort of condescending tone, indicating they are superior because they are clearly much busier and therefore, somehow superior.
Stop the insanity! Have you ever been to someone’s funeral and heard in the eulogy how busy they were? I am guessing you haven’t and that is because “busy” is not worth mentioning. What is meaningful are the moments, memories and relationships we create.
If we have a lot of activities going on we have two choices. One – we can feel extremely grateful to have such abundance and opportunity in our lives or, two – if we feel overwhelmed, we might want to consider where we can cut back to make things manageable. Understand though, the choice is ultimately ours.
Imagine how much peace we can bring to our lives if we all jump off the busy train and replace it with a thoughtful creative approach to our lives. If we considered, what is important to me? What do I want to accomplish today? How can I better serve? How can I create more meaningful moments with those I value the most?
We are not bees – we are human beings and we are here to create the lives our hearts are longing to live. But in order to do that we need to first let go of following the crowd and their strange rituals that do not serve us – like being busy.
My challenge to you is to become aware of this behavior from yourself and others. How can you respond to others in a different way when asked how you are? Think about how it feels to be working on several exciting things at the same time and to feel grateful for the opportunity and abundance. If there is something that is no longer serving you, consider letting it go. You can have a different experience. This is your life. You choose.
Let go of “busy” and start creating!