When someone asks you how you are, how often is the answer “busy”?
In our culture, we often wear busyness as a badge of honor.
We talk about how “busy” we are as though it’s just a fact rather than a highly subjective concept we just made up.
Have you ever noticed that some people are constantly complaining about how busy they are while others hardly ever mention being busy?
I’ve noticed that there seems to be very little correlation between the people who are actually doing the most and the people who complain about being busy most often.
If you feel busy, overwhelmed, or frazzled all the time, it’s not because of the number of things on your to-do list. Emotions are not caused by the circumstances in our lives. Feelings are caused by our thoughts.
If you’re constantly thinking about how busy you are and how you have too many things to do, of course you feel overwhelmed and stressed.
I’m not saying that you don’t have a full life. Of course you do. We all do. We have full-time jobs, families, friends, pets, errands to run, houses to clean, hobbies, and much more.
I’m also not saying that you shouldn’t ever feel overwhelmed or that you shouldn’t take some things off your plate (if you can).
What I am saying is that your thoughts matter a lot more than you think.
When I find myself feeling overwhelmed, here are some thoughts that I find much more helpful than “I’m so busy” or “’l can’t keep up”.
- I have a full life.
- I’m feeling overwhelmed right now, and that’s okay.
- I have a lot to do, and I’m great at getting things done.
- This is hard, and I can do hard things.
- There is plenty of time.
- I always have time to get the most important things done.
- If I let a few little things slide, it’s not a big deal.
- Done is better than perfect.
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