Thursday, January 30, 2014

"Busy" ... A False Badge of Honour

As of late I find myself reflecting on my ability to time manage 
  • myself
  • my family 
  • and my career
  • my community involvement
In doing so I have made the conscience effort to not use the term "busy" as I found that it truly is a false badge of honour.  We as teachers, parents, coaches, managers and partners truly wear many different hats and I find we try to quantify someone's "busyness" as a reflection of how well they wear those different hats.  

How often do you find yourself saying  "busy" when someone asks you how you are? When did this become an acceptable answer?  

I know I have done it.  I believe we do this because we are leery of authentic conversation.  It is our scape goat, when you say busy, people aren't sure whether they should ask for more details so the conversation stops.  Never mind the competitive nature in all of us where we feel we have to out do each other.

Let's Challenge Ourselves!

When someone asks you how you are, I want you to respond genuinely and not use the term busy because in reality all this does is make the person asking feel guilty because you are in part telling them that you are busier than they are. An almost wake up call for them to do more.   Here is the kicker, when you are constantly telling yourself how busy you are, do you get anything accomplished?  Also the more we say it - the more we feel it - it is a self fulfilling prophecy.  We never work effectively because we are trying to rush on to the next task. 

I hope by challenging myself in this regard I will become a more effective "hat changer"   because we all know that being busy is not synonymous with being productive.  

Here's hoping that we can all get some authenticity back to our conversations and stop hiding behind "busy".  Let's accomplish more by not feeling busy but realizing that more gets accomplished when you work productively one step at a time.  

....A Further Challenge.....if your up for it.....

The next time someone responds with "busy" when you ask them how they are ...why don't you try asking "how can I help" ...perhaps that will turn the tide of the conversation.  


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