a false illusion of control. During the
years when my outer world was filled
with chaos and hardship, I felt without
control, without options. Staying
busy let me avoid stepping into the
messy, needing-change portions of my
life—from being audited by the IRS to
struggling through a failing marriage.
But it also kept me from pursuing my
brave side, the side that grasps for the
inches of change. I didn’t really spend
time in spaces where things would
change; I just rearranged the spaces of
my life to create a semblance of order
and temporary accomplishment. In
other words, to use my grandpa’s work
ethic as an example, I was tidying the
barn when I should have been in the
field. action. There is a profound difference
in doing what needs to be done
immediately versus doing what can be
done tomorrow.
The brake of busy prioritizes
nonessential items with greater
importance and dilutes the critical
importance of essential, life-changing In order to break out of the busy
excuse, you have to stop what you’re
doing and ask yourself why you’re
doing it right now. What’s the point of
In the book Breaking Busy , my friend
Alli Worthington details how being busy
gives her a rush of accomplishment—I
can relate to that—but also keeps her
from looking at the corners of her life
that she has been neglecting.
You must understand that when I was
busy, I felt good, as though I were fixing
things that needed to be done, thus that
rush. But I was ignoring what needed
to be done. All busy does is rearrange
the current without influencing the
future.
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