Busyness: Not a Badge of Honor but a Deadly Disease

Ask yourself, what would happen if you did less?

I was absolutely the person that wore busyness as if it were a badge of honor that made me "better" because I was always doing something. And it makes sense. We live in a culture where busyness is one of our primary forms of social capital. Even when we talk about self-care, meditation, and self-improvement, people are always trying to do more rather than less. 

But the truth is, busyness is a plague. 

It's a disease and it perpetuates the belief that there is greater value in doing more, and that in order to maintain our worth and value, we must keep up with or surpass the pace we are keeping. Busyness keeps people at a distance and allows us to avoid facing the fears, shame, and harsh realities shackling us to these narratives. It keeps us stuck in a state of "predictable shittyness".

What do we do? 

For starters, let's just acknowledge that we have been bitten by the busyness bug. 

Trust me, you are not immune no matter how enlightened you may be. 

We have all been engaged in a social system that values busyness throughout our lives. From here, we can assess what it means to see ourselves as a “human doing” versus a “human being”. 

Ask yourself, what would happen if you did less? Or, even, if you did the same amount but no one knew. How do your fear and shame narratives kick in to tell you that this would lessen your value? And what does that feel like for you as a whole?

Next, it’s about shifting from busy to productive and then inevitably, from productive to intentional. If you find yourself ready to dive deeper into making these shifts, check out this playlist on YouTube.

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