When I was in 8th grade, my Spanish teacher had the class describe (in Spanish) the personalities of each member of the class. When it was my turn to be “identified”, the class put it together in a second: occupado (busy).
What was I so busy with in 8th grade? I haven’t a clue.
Someone I worked with several years ago at a Wall Street firm once told me his secret to success (and promotion): “Look busy, even if you’re not.” And how do you look busy? By having a serious, slightly pained expression on your face as often as you can manage it. “If you ever look happy,” he claimed, “you must be thinking about something other than work.”
I may have changed a little from my days in 8th grade, but I still like to be “busy”, and I still walk around at a speed which leaves most people in the dust.
What’s wrong with being busy? Should I just sit around?
Why are you criticizing me for being busy? I have so many responsibilities I can barely breathe some days!
Nothing’s wrong with action. Most of us need more action. We typically leave many important actions undone. But being busy is not related to doing things that are important to us.
What if the drive to fill up your time with activities is a smokescreen, a distraction that keeps you too busy to think, and too busy to do what’s really important to you?
Some people are always starting things, and rarely finishing them. They are constantly busy, but they don’t accomplish much. Other people accomplish a great deal, but the things that they accomplish don’t seem important after they’re done.
There are so many ways that we hide from who we are and who we could become. There are so many ways that we hide from thinking about what we’re doing. It’s so tempting, especially when I have a lot of things that I really have to do, to rush into filling any available time with miscellaneous actions that I feel I must do. But it’s precisely when I have so much to do that I need to be careful about how I use those moments where I have some choice. (And typically I have more choice than I admit to.) Keeping ourselves busy every second is one way we avoid facing important choices in our lives. It’s a way that we hide from living. How do I define living? Living is when you express in your life the great potential that lies within you. Greatness for one person is different than another. But each of us has gifts and passions all our own, and when we find a way to let those out, that’s living.
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