How busy are you? Life is busy right? Do you find it hard to relax? To stop, to chill, to smell the roses? I know I know, you’ll get to the roses. Sure. Just as soon as you’ve crossed the outstanding 357 things off your to-do list. I just have no idea just how much you have to get done today. I know, I hear you, I too was an absolute slave to busy. In fact I would say old habits die hard and I still have separation anxiety from busy. Thing is when busy is the boss of you (whether you realise it or not), busy is a really crappy employer, with seriously crappy staff benefits. Busy is the boss of a whole heap of us and he sure has a lot of rules:
Busy tells you there will be time to relax later (but later never comes).
Busy tells you that you are lazy if you stop and relax or God forbid have fun.
Busy says time out is for losers, and you, you goddammit are a winner . . . so keep going!
Busy is sure persistence will get you where you need to go.
Busy knows you cannot afford to take a break right now.
Busy says life is meant to be hard.
Busy cannot bear to have you let anyone down.
Busy says it's absolutely reasonable to stay late . . . again.
Busy worships multi-tasking . . . and if you can't keep up busy knows it's because you are just not working hard enough.
Busy likes the house to always be immaculate just in case... (just in case never happens).
Busy wants everybody to be kept happy, whatever it takes.
Busy needs you to go the extra mile.
Busy says you need to be the perfect parent, perfect partner, perfect employee, perfect slave.
Busy knows you need to get through those items on the to do list . . . all of them . . . or you are a big fat failure and just not efficient enough.
Busy knows your work is never done.
Busy thinks you are not good enough. Smart enough. Quick enough. Organised enough.
Busy is a bully of a boss. Busy is a slavedriver. He is single-minded and he loves seeing you work, and work and work. If you are a slave to busy then it’s time to look for a new employer. One who treats their employees well, rewards them for their endeavours, appreciates their work, gives them treats, holidays, time off, fun staff social events, praise, awesome Christmas parties. Busy is all in our minds. We create busy, it’s got nothing to do with our actual job, it’s purely a state of mind. Which is great news because that means we have the power and choice to change it. How about you work for inspiring, fun or balanced instead? Or ease or grace? How different would that be?
Louise is a life coach, author and corporate escapee. Visit louisethompson.com for more.