Are you tired? I’m tired.
Our lives are so busy aren’t they? We just go, and go, and go. Never stopping to think about if we should be doing the things we’re doing. I do it. You do it. We all do it.
Busy is built into our culture now. We seem to thrive on the idea of productivity. We value businesses that are open 24/7. We love hacks and tips that are meant to make us faster so that we can get more done. We hold up the side hustle as the epitome of effectiveness. Because your 8 or 9 to 5 isn’t enough anymore.
Do you ever feel like if someone found out that you and your family don’t have something going on every night of the week then they’d view you as some sort of outcast from society? “What do you mean that you go home and have dinner with your family? Don’t you have anything better to do?”
We don’t even have time to have a conversation anymore. Now we just pass each other in the hall. “Hey man! How’s it going?” “Great. So busy. You know how it is.” “Yep, sure do. See ya.” Then we rush off to wherever we were headed.
We all wear “busy” as a badge of honor. We shouldn’t.
Busy is an addiction.
It’s a drug. There is a rush associated it. We’re proud of it. Like any addictive drug, it draws you in and leaves you wanting. So you need more and more of it to get that same rush you used to get.
Just so you’re aware, this isn’t me railing against you or our culture … although I probably should. It’s me railing against me. If you ever want to know what’s going on in my life or where I’m struggling, just pay attention to what I’m writing here. I write for me as much as I write for you.
I have a lot of irons in the fire; a lot of plates all spinning at once. I have a lot of roles that I’m trying to fill. The problem with that, of course, is that we can only handle so much. For everything that you add, something else has to get put aside. The more roles you have, the more things that don’t get the attention they deserve. Things get dropped. You forget things. Man, have I been dropping and forgetting things.
Also, don’t get me wrong. This isn’t me complaining. I’ve chosen a lot of the things I’m doing. On purpose for the most part. Things just catch up to you, you know?
I guess what I’m saying is that it’s time to make life simpler. It doesn’t have to be stark white and minimal where you do nothing at all. I mean, maybe that’s a great solution. But I’m not quite there yet. I don’t think I can just stop cold turkey.
What I am saying is that it’s time that I take my life and make it be what it needs to be for me and my family, and not what everyone else wants it to be. It’s time to simplify. It’s time to start being more intentional with what I do with my time and my life. I only get one of these lives after all.
Maybe you can relate? Are you tired? Have too many things going on and too many roles to fill for the time and space you have available? Are you tired of being tired?
Let’s start to make our lives better. Let’s make the hard choices. Let’s choose the right things and not all the things. Let’s choose to live with more intention.
It won’t be a popular decision, but it will be a healthier one. That’s a decision worth making.