Busy is a decision.

“It is not enough to be busy. So are the ants. The question is: What are we busy about?

Anytime I hear someone say I don’t have time for that or I am too busy, they are advertising their priorities. If you don’t have time to read or exercise, it is a testament that those activities are not pain points for you. Most of the time, we are not as busy as we think. We live in an age where busyness is a badge of honour. Henry David Thoreau once said, “It is not enough to be busy. So are the ants. The question is: What are we busy about?

The real question is, what are you busy with? We spend countless hours checking notifications on our smartphones, engaging in shallow work, binge-watching TV shows, and spending countless hours dumb-scrolling the internet and social media platforms. Time is the only finite resource we can’t get back once lost. Time is also the greatest equalizer. The marketplace rewards the best problem solvers and to solve hard problems requires staying busy on the right things.

Busyness is a decision we make on the things we are prioritizing. The key to worthwhile progress is to choose the right bus. Are you busy working on yourself or obsessed with how the world sees you? Are you busy focusing on the competition/vanity metric or building your business? Are you minding your business or complaining about everything under the sun? Life is a choice between what we pay attention to and what we decide to have hold on us.

In his 2017 book Tribe of Mentors ¹: Short Life Advice from the Best in the World, author and podcast Tim Ferriss asked top performers and highly successful people 11 eleven questions to learn about their journey. He asked them, “If you could have a gigantic billboard anywhere with anything on it, what would it say and why?” I believe that designer, author and brand consultant Debbie Millman had one of the best responses to that question. Her response was, “Busy is a decision.” Millman said

“If you could have a gigantic billboard anywhere with anything on it, what would it say and why?”

“My billboard would say this: “Busy is a decision.” Here’s why: Of the many, many excuses people se to rationalize why they can’t do something, the excuse “I am too busy” is not only the most inauthentic, it is also the laziest. I don’t believe in “too busy.” Like I said, busy is a decision. We do the things we want to do, period. If we say we are too busy, it is shorthand for not important enough.” It means you would rather be doing something else that you consider more important. That “thing” could be sleep, it could be sex, or it could be watching Game of Thrones. If we use busy as an excuse for not doing something what we are really, really saying is that it’s not a priority.”

“Simply put: You don’t find the time to do something; you make the time to do things.”

We are now living in a society that sees busy as a badge. It has become cultural cachet to use the excuse “I am too busy,” as a reason for not doing anything we don’t feel like doing. The problem is this: if you let yourself off the hook for not doing something for any reason, you won’t ever do it. If you want to do something, you can’t let being busy stand in the way, even if you are busy. Make the time to do the things you want to do and then do them.

If you want to do something, you can’t let being busy stand in the way, even if ou are busy. Make the time to do the things you want to do and then do them.

Nobody is “busy” ² unless they want to be busy, and you will know that because so many people with extremely hectic schedules would never describe themselves that way. This is because being “busy” is not a virtue; it only signals to others that you do not know how to manage your time or your tasks.

Busy is not a virtue; it only signals to others that you do not know how to manage your time or your tasks.

You need to bring more conscious and consistent thought to what you will find meaningful in life. You start by exploring your own definitions of meaning and how to enhance it in your life. When you learn the difference between busywork ³ and your life’s work, that’s the first step on the path of purpose.

When you learn the difference between busywork and your life’s work, that’s the first step on the path of purpose.

Meditations

Daily Calm with Tamara Levitt – Heartbreak

When a relationship comes to an end, we can feel broken. Heartbreak can be deep and a lasting source of pain. Heartbreak leaves us feeling sad, depressed, scared and angry. Healing takes time, and the best way to get through a heartbreak is to get right in the middle and be open to whatever comes up.

It is scary to open up to strong emotions when opening up to them might cause them to intensify even worse and paralyze us in despair. We avoid our sadness, fear or rage and seek comfort in consumption, work or entertainment. We can only avoid our emotions for so long. Our resistance to our new reality creates suffering on top of suffering. Change is inevitable. Since we can count on change, we can trust that the suffering of our heartache will change, too. If we make room for it, gradually, slowly, and eventually, it will soften.

Open yourself to discomfort. Meet it with mercy, not fear. Recognize that when our pain most calls for our embrace, we are often the least present. Soften, enter, and explore, and continue softening to make room for your life.― Stephen Levine, A Year to Live: How to Live This Year as If It Were Your Last

Daily Jay with Jay Shetty – Seasons

Life operates in seasons and cycles. We often resist the season we are in; we try to force things even though it is not their time. But generally, it is better to accept whatever life throws your way. Frequently life creates seasons specifically for us and we need to adjust to the weather that comes our way. When we don’t allow ebbs and flows to our lives, we get depleted or stressed. Spanish-American writer George Santayana once wrote, “To be interested in the changing seasons is a happier state of mind than to be hopelessly in love with spring.”