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Being Too Busy
Good evening or good morning dear reader. And welcome to my world for another week. Over the last week, & as we head into another four days next week, I have been considering how busy I have been. Have you ever said to yourself, “I’m too busy”? “I’m too busy to meet this person…” “I’m too busy to take care of my health…” “I’m too busy to learn a language…” We take in a big sigh, & even lead ourselves to believe being “too busy” is something worth celebrating. I have certainly been guilty of this many times over.
In a world of rapid change, infinite access, & countless distractions, our society has built a culture around celebrating “keeping busy”, for the sake of… well, keeping busy. But I am sure many of you dear reader will have heard there is a massive difference between activity & performance. We can be efficient in a lot of things in our lives, without ever being effective.
Here is why telling ourselves we are “too busy” can lead to a negative cycle. We Reap What We Sow. Have you ever bought a new car, & suddenly you start to notice lots of cars identical to the one you just bought?
It is not because the manufacturers of your car suddenly decided to release more models in your city. It means your Reticular Activating System is at work. Without boring you with the scientific details, your RAS is the automatic mechanism inside your brain telling us what to pay attention to, & what not to. Think of it as a filter for the brain.
As bland as the name may sound, it’s an incredibly important part of our brain since it is the gatekeeper which determines how we think ~ consciously or subconsciously. One of the greatest examples of the RAS at work was when Roger Bannister broke the four-minute mile in 1954, which was claimed to be impossible at the time. A year after he broke the record, over a dozen people also beat the record, including high school students.
The reason why we bring up RAS is because there is two ways to control our brain:
- Consciously: By purposefully setting goals, affirmations, & visualizing our goals, we can create a filter to enable our brain to focus on anything to get us closer to our goal.
- Sub-consciously: By telling ourselves “we do not have time”, our brain is going to find every reason to justify why we do not have time.
Since our brain will eventually believe whatever message we feed it, telling ourselves we are “too busy” only becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. 1
However, being busy Is Not being productive
I often find myself busy scrambling to finish my to-do list for the week. It is only when I take a step back to reflect, I realize there were only 3 things on the list which made an actual impact to my end goals.
The truth is, all of us have the time to do anything we want: spend time with family, learn a language, go to the gym, & cook a healthy meal. We just cannot do everything we want.
So how do we put this into action? A solution that has been working incredibly well for me is asking one simple question…
So, what is your one thing dear reader? In the bestselling book, The ONE Thing, Gary Keller describes it as “the ‘one thing’ you can do such that by doing it, everything else will be easier or unnecessary.” You can apply this concept to your business life, personal life, physical health, finances, well most things I suspect.
As simple as this exercise may sound, it is one of the most difficult questions I ask myself. Essentially, you are forcing yourself to say no to the good opportunities, so you can make way for the opportunities which can change your life. Sometimes those lines are blurred, but by simply asking the right question: you can stop being “too busy”, & start being productive.
Ask yourself: are you saying “yes” to too many things? If you are, it may be time to re-prioritize your goals and activities. For the rest of the day (or week if you can), try approaching anything to come at you by asking: is this my “ONE Thing?”
If the answer is “no”, then move on. Remember, saying “no” to the mediocre will open up the opportunity to say “yes” to the extraordinary.
Thank you dear reader for taking the time to be with me once again & I hope my journey may encourage you also. Until next weekend, this is Kenn Butler in Paradise, Nelson, with my best wishes & to you all, a splendid long week; remembering also those of you who will need to be working.
www.kennbutler.com
1 Inspired by Sean Kim, the founder of rypeapp.com, a language learning platform helping people speak fluently in any language faster. He is also a blogger at http://thegrowthlist.com
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