I used to seriously dislike people who chastised me for my glorification of busy. There was a while that I marketed my business specifically for crazy busy women, and it was on more than one occasion that I was told that I was part of the problem.
Why, I asked, what is so wrong with being busy?
Of course, I read Arianna Huffington’s book Thrive. I knew how important it was for my own self-care, and that of my clients, to take time for ourselves—to meditate and do yoga and get enough sleep. So it just irked me to no end when people censured me on my use of the word busy, when in fact that’s what I was and what many of my client’s were: busy.
Fast forward to the present day, fresh off a nine month hiatus from building my business because I was focused on moving my family across the country, and I have found myself in a very different frame of mind. I am not busy. I am nesting. And I am frequently bored to death.
Then, as I was scrolling through Facebook I saw these two memories: one from the perspective of a business owner and the older one as a stay-at-home mom.
I can totally see how I was indeed glorifying busy.
Just to seal the lesson, I was on the phone with my mom just last night and she uttered the words: “I can’t stand idleness. I have no use for lazy people.” It was certainly not the first time I heard THAT come from my mother’s lips. The evil of sloth is a very old tape that my inner critic had ingrained from a very young age and loves to replay.
It soon became apparent to me that I have to find some reconciliation in the grey area between the extremes of busy and lazy for my own sanity.
Today, I am not busy. I am nesting. I am supporting my husband and my children by establishing new routines and decorating our new home. I am writing again and enjoying the process that requires lots of daydreaming and contemplation. I am still coaching, of course, and even coaching has its own down time like holding the silence after a powerful question so that my client can go into themselves and find their truth in their answers. I’m not chasing potential clients instead I am allowing them to find me. I am not lazy. I am purposeful in my non-doing.
Where do you fall in this belief spectrum? Busy, good or bad?