Been busy lately?
Busy… busy… busy! The standard response to “How are you?” is now “Busy!” Robert Banks, author of “All the Business of Life”, notes that while our society is rich in things, we are extremely poor in time. In fact, never before in human history has a society been so things-rich and so time-poor.
Our world has become the world of the Red Queen in Alice in Wonderland: “Now here, you see, it takes all the running you can do to keep in the same place. If you want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast as that.”
So how do you make sure you are busy doing what matters most? I personally believe that balance is not the goal. I really don’t think that we will ever really achieve balance as such. For example, if I am going to do extra study then perhaps my social, family and or community life may suffer. Another example could be if I have a young family then the extra time required to support them will mean that now won’t be the most useful time for taking on that MBA I always wanted to do!
My encouragement to you is to replace the word balance with the word priorities. What would your responses be to the following questions?
- Are you truly aware of what you are doing with your 168 hours each week?
- Are you genuinely mindful of the things that are truly important to you and if you are, then are they getting the energy and emotional space you would want them to have on a daily basis?
- If for example you say you value family more than work… does your family get the same energy and emotional space as your number one client? More? Less?
Two suggestions…
- Try replacing one night of TV a month with writing down a list of the ten things you believe that you value most and then spend the rest of the month working out a way to make sure they get the time and energy they need!
- Remember that you can have everything you want in life… just not all at the same time!
Enjoy the journey!
