Is busyness actually a blessing?
We bellyache a lot about how busy we are. It’s one of the areas where there’s complete social license to whinge about it. “Oh I’m so busy. Got so much on. Up to my eyeballs in work.”
There’s a real danger here that in complaining about being busy we are complaining about being productive or complaining about being valued, and the universe just decides to give us what we want.
“There you go. A broken hip. What? I thought you wanted some down time?”
So we need to embrace busy – having a full plate.
But my friend told me an interesting story the other day that shows that busyness can actually be a blessing.
She’s a powerhouse of a woman. She gets a huge amount down, and earns some serious coin. She’s also single and very attractive.
Anyway, she’s developing a relationship with a builder. Strictly professional, but then it starts to bleed into being something else.
“Perhaps we should look at the plans again together,” he says. “Do you want to come over to my house? Maybe stay for dinner. I’ve got this fantastic bottle of red. Do you like prawns?”
She’s pretty switched on to this sort of thing. She’s an attractive woman. She’s been getting it all her life, and let’s face it, men generally don’t have fantastic subtle skills.
But she doesn’t blame him either. She knows she’s hot, and there is nothing like the sight of a woman on a jack-hammer. He’s only human.
And truth be told, she’s not totally closed to the idea either. He is actually a great builder, and a pretty good looking guy too. Fun to be around…
But, and this is the thing, she’s busy. Super-busy. She doesn’t have time to muck around and she definitely doesn’t want to feel uncomfortable on her own work site.
So she cuts through it, like a samurai through an orange in mid-flight.
“Look. I’m getting these cues. It’s not appropriate here, or right now, but I am also not totally closed to it either… maybe down the track. But for now, here are the ground rules…”
And she lays it out.
And to his credit, he takes it on. He owns it. Yep he’s attracted to her, definitely respects her professional boundaries, happy to play by the rules for now and see what unfolds.
They even developed a private hand single. Like a little push with the palm to say, ‘back behind the line ,thanks.’
And so they make it work. They are still making it work, and are doing fantastic things together.
“Looks like you’ve had a rough day. Need a back rub? No? Ok, back behind the line.”
It’s a good news story.
But she was laughing as she’s telling me this. It is soooo much easier this way. She thinks about how much time she’s spent trying to dance around men who were coming on a little too strong.
So much better just to cut straight to it.
But she recognises that the only reason why she was being so direct was because she was so busy. She just had no time to muck around or take any crap.
Busyness forces you to be productive and efficient. Ultra busyness forces you to be ultra-productive.
And not just at your tools, but in everything you do. Once you become allergic to faff and bullsh!t, you start cutting it out of every aspect of your life.
As a result, your general quality of life just becomes so much better.
When your time becomes precious, you start to value it as it should be valued – as the most precious resource and gift you have.
I almost feel sorry for people who aren’t busy. I imagine how much faff and bullsh!t they just put up with. Uggh. Can you imagine? Nobody got time for that.
So that’s it. You want quality of life? Submit yourself to the disciplines of busy.