I was talking on the phone to a friend tonight. He was asking about me and Atlanta and the job and such.
I told him about how busy I am….that I don’t know much about Atlanta because I’m at the office, that I’m too irritable and rushed most of the time to think about finding a girlfriend, that work is alot of stress and deadlines.
He said, “Its good to be busy.”
I said, “Do you really think so?”
I am unsure whether it is good to be busy. “Busy at what?” would be my question.
Busy can be good…as long as you are busy doing stuff that reinforces what you believe in, stuff that is an expression of your values.
But I don’t think it is natural to be busy all the time. Periods of intense activity followed by periods of recovery is the story of life…not in a philosophical sense, but in a biological sense.
Life is series of sprints, not a marathon. The lion hunts the wildebeest, eats its feast, and then sits around for a few days fat and happy. Everywhere in nature (especially in large land animals) we see this cycle of activity and rest.
It often seems we have eliminated the lag periods of recovery from our lives in favor of 24 hour productivity. It is possible to live like this; people can bear almost anything…but it does take its toll.
In the face of the relentless demands of our lives, we become so acclimated to a chronic state of mild anxiety and moderate discontent that we accept it as the status quo and forget what it is like to feel any differently.
And that is one of my biggest fears about work: That I will become numb to distract myself from these demands and that I will use my busyness as an excuse to do nothing about it.
In fact, the busyness both contributes to the anxiety and distracts us from dealing with it. It is both the cause and the cure.
Busyness distracts you from what is important. Allowing the tasks of life to command all your attention guarantees that you will lose track of yourself. This makes you irritated, unhappy and unable to reach your full potential.
Imagine you are out at sea on a boat that springs a leak. Your immediate purpose is obviously to keep the boat from sinking. But so long as you are busy bailing water, no one is steering the boat.
The same is true in our lives. When we are preoccupied with the tasks of the day, we have little energy left to make sure our lives are heading in the right direction, that our actions are reinforcing our values.
When no attention is paid to steering our lives in the right direction, we gradually lose touch with our passion, are less giving in our relationships, and experience a constant, mild anxiety. And that basically descibes most of the United States.
Travel really drove home for me the price we pay for all our productivity and busyness. Those years that I was gone others my age were busy living the “American Dream”. I returned home and found most of them overcomplacent, passionless, inflexible, distant, and unwilling to do anything about it….or even address it.
I was thinking about this because I’ve been trying to get in touch with a friend from NY for a week now. I bet I’ve called her 10 times and she the same to me….but we can’t seem to reach each other.
So now when I leave a message on her voicemail I say, “Tag, you’re it.”
I’d like to know what you guys think: Do you feel busy all the time? Do you think that it’s a good thing?
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I think in today’s society we equate “Busy” with success. In some ways “busyness” gives me a sense of worth or purpose. If I have nothing to do I almost feel guilty. Gee, here I sit doing “nothing” how dare I. Are we emulating our parents? Mine worked 24/7. Is this a life style we’ve been taught?
There are definately a few different kinds of busy. Unfortunately, most people are a bad kind of busy, falling into the perpetual cycle of overworking themselves then playing catch up. This is what leads to all the pitfalls that you speak of; stress, lack of passion, inflexible, and being unwilling to do anything about it. Like it or not, there will always be things that have to be done as long as we’re contributing parts of modern American society; working, paying bills, housekeeping, and that sort of thing. But it can be a fine line.
It’s like you say, busy can be good as long as you’re doing stuff that reinforces what you believe in. There are many times I catch myself saying that I’ve been busy, but it’s really not the bad kind of busy. Aside from working, I am “busy” doing things I enjoy, outdoor activities, reading, exercising, going places, etc. So provided you’re not overworked (in which case it might be wise to look for a new job), it’s just a matter of finding a balance, and then whether you spend your free time being busy is up to you.
Sometimes I prefer busy. Sometimes. I don’t have much of a life, so not being busy heightens my awareness of the fact that I am alone. Nevertheless, busy should be a state of transience. You should be busy some of the time. But it’s impossible to be busy all of the time–at least to me it is. Busy to me connotes things are more hectic than normal. If you’re busy all of the time, then you aren’t really busy; you’re just operating at your normal ridiculous pace. You see, the one thing that makes every person on this planet equal isn’t that we are all born with the same inalienable rights. What makes us all equal is that–rich, poor, black, white, tall, short, fat, thin, smart, or stupid–every person on this planet gets 24 hours in a day. So busy isn’t then an excuse or explanation for why you behave the way you do; it is your choice of behavior.