Busy to satisfied

Hey [First Name],

Do you ever find yourself responding to the question, “How’s life?” with an emphatic, “Busy!”?

A couple years ago I had a conversation with a wise girlfriend about how we are addicted to busy and we tend to wear it as a badge of honor, even while we insist that it’s not what we want and that somehow, someday life will be how we want it, just as soon as we have more time.

So I switched my verbiage to express my schedule as “full.”  It makes me feel like I am choosing my use of time and level of activeness], and it truthfully feels better to think of my life as full rather than busy. The last few weeks have definitely been full for me: constant wonderful house guests, getting ready for a month-long vacation, managing my businesses, making a baby, running a two week challenge, launching my favorite program, and playing with my family and friends.

Whew!

As I reviewed my schedule for today and assessed my sad state of being completely-not-packed I leaned my head on Peter, feeling completely overwhelmed, and said (in a distressed voice), “I have so much to do.”

And then immediately said, “Is that true?”

Peter said, “I don’t know.  Do you have a list?”

Right.

This is where we drown in the fullness of life – the state of overwhelm.  Our minds start weighing us down with vague and grandiose statements about how much there is to do and how we’ll never get a handle on it.

But there’s a life preserver we can throw to ourselves when we’re drowning in our obligations: Tell the truth and get clear about the facts.

“So much to do” and “busy” are vague and subjective.  And they arise from a perspective that tends to be habitual – regardless of the actual work that would be required to tackle our nebulous list of burdens.  Like most threats in life, it will always seem more daunting as long as it remains vague.    However, a list of twenty things to do is an objective place to start, without the added emotional drama.  This is the truth.

For me, the truth was a list of things I needed to complete (this blog being one of them) and a handful of meetings.

The next step is to get clear about the facts.  Sometimes we have a list of things to do and the fact is that we can’t do it all today.  Sometimes there are things on our list and the fact is that we don’t actually have  to, or want to.  Once you are clear about these facts, then you can take action, getting some things done now, moving others to a later date, finding people to help you, and, happily, removing some items from your list.

The result is doable.  You go from overwhelmed to ready to move forward.  And at the end of the day, satisfied, because you weren’t just busy, you were choosing your actions, taking steps forward, and living your life with intention. Want to learn more about living your life with intention and accomplishing big things?  I would love to have you join me for my Get It, Create Anything You Want course starting June 23^rd.

With love,

Briana