We Weren't Meant to Be Busy

You know, when something happens repeatedly enough, and for long enough, it can start to blend into the "background" of everyday life; and you really stop noticing it. For example, people who live or work (or both) in busy urban downtown areas seem to, eventually, tune out the noise; it's not that they don't hear it, it's that it just becomes part of their everyday idea of life itself -- so that when they get out into the country, they can't comprehend just how quiet things are (much to the amusement of people who live in the country).

So...what's my point here? Ah, thanks for asking. It's this: I don't think we human beings were meant to be busy.

Really. Yes, busy-ness has become a way of life for many people -- urban and rural and everywhere else -- and one doesn't necessarily need a so-called "busy job" in order to experience ongoing, chronic, relentless busy-ness. Call them errands, call them chores, call them "things on a to-do list," call them what you want. It's all about being busy.

And because we are all soooooooooOOOooOOooo busy in our lives, and because everyone else is sooooOOOoooOOOO busy as well, it's hard to notice just what's going on. It's hard to take a step back, look in a mirror (or out a window) and say, with stunned realization: just what's going on here? Why are we all SO busy?

From a spiritual perspective (or say a psychological one if you find the word spiritual a bit unnerving), there really are two deep, hidden reasons for our chronic busy-ness. Both of these reasons may...well, they may sting a little if you're caught up in a cycle of busy-ness, and for that I apologize. But a little stinging is okay -- and self-help isn't all about hugging trees and smiling, right?

Reason #1: Being chronically, endlessly busy is very nourishing to our egos -- because it helps our egos feel like we MATTER SO MUCH to the grand scheme of things. It's as if the very rotation of the earth depends on our ability to get to the next meeting or take person A to sporting event B, or whatever. And it's because of this underlying ego-gratification that many people -- most people -- are in some way boasting when they talk about how busy they are. Yes, they are suffering because of their busy-ness; they really are stressed-out and in pain. But deeper than that is an underlying satisfaction; and if you listen closely, you can detect it quite vividly. People brag about being busy -- to others, and to themselves -- because it strengthens the ego. It says: how could the world exist without me? I'm so busy...

Reason #2: On an even deeper level, the perception of being busy helps people avoid the one thing that they are frenetically running away from: their own inner stillness. It's like a children's toy that stays upright as long as its spinning -- as long as its "busy." But if the busy-ness stops -- if the spinning stops -- the toy simply falls over. People are caught in the hamster-wheel of busy-ness -- and are utterly destroying the quality of their lives and those around them -- simply to "stay spinning" -- because, regardless of how stressful a "spinning life" is for most people, it is still preferred to no spin at all.

And for these two reasons above, we have created a culture -- and it's not just western anymore, it's global -- that is addicted to being busy. It has become the very language of business -- which should really be called busy-ness, because that's indeed what the business world provides in a very psychologically satisfying way: the capacity to take billions of people and make them busy. What else can do that?

The earth has been around for a long, long, long, long, long, long time. And longer still. Do you really think that it needs a bunch of people on top of it "being busy"? In fact, the opposite is true: as a species, we are destroying this planet with profound speed.

The point here isn't to preach about how mad human beings are (and yes, we're quite mad), it's to talk about busy-ness. It's to encourage you to take a step back from your life and ask two deeply important questions:

1) Am I cultivating busy-ness in my life for no actual reason than to "be busy" -- am I being busy for the sake of being busy?

2) ...WHY don't I stop?

The fact is, you can stop -- you can stop cultivating busy-ness in your life. You don't need to be busy. Indeed, other people -- people who are not as self-aware as you -- will accuse you of being lazy. But are you? If you focus on what you do, and that focus allows you to do it well and effectively, and you don't spend hours and hours "fixing" the errors you caused by being busy, and your focused clarity gives you the ability to be remarkably efficient and effective in what you do...then you aren't being lazy. You're being staggeringly intelligent.

There are people -- I'm sure we know them -- who always apologize for their sloppiness and inconsideration by saying "oh, sorry, I'm multi-tasking." Whenever someone says that to me, I immediately think (and sometimes say :) "sorry, but you aren't multi-tasking -- multi-tasking means that you're doing different things; all you're doing is a bunch of sloppy, mediocre things at the same time. That's not multi-tasking, that's multi-nothing."

(You can see why I just think it instead of say it :)