We get a lot of flack. We're "Busy Bees", "Overachievers", or maybe we do just actually hate ourselves. We're 18+ credits a semester, multiple majors, athletes, actors, musicians, workers, aspiring to be and do everything. Maybe we hate free time. Maybe we hate being alone. Maybe we're afraid of missing out. Maybe we're just crazy.
Any of these things could be true. We are combinations of all these traits and more.
With all this negativity, it's important to remember there are positives to doing lots of things. Usually, this means you care about so much that you can't limit your attention to one place. Maybe being busy makes you feel useful.
But whatever you're doing, it all can easily break you down if you don't know your limits. This is something I know I'm still learning and will be learning all my life.
The big issue is that college culture propagates the idea of being constantly busy, stressed, and on edge. We all talk about it like it's completely normal and acceptable to be pushing yourself over the edge, surviving on coffee and sheer force of will.
It is not.
Don't get me wrong, I love being busy, and I love every direction in which I spread my attention. But I will be fighting my urge to take on too much forever, because I'm learning now how important it is to keep yourself focused. Busyness without focus is a hamster wheel, a bad dream. It gets you nowhere.
To find this focus, you have to be honest with yourself. In this wall-to-wall life you've built for yourself, there's little room for reflection.
Make time for it. Stop telling yourself you don't have time, because you have just as much as anyone. You have just as much as Beyoncé, or Lin-Manuel Miranda, or Barack Obama. You do what you make time for.
Ask yourself the why's and the how's and the who's because they matter.
Ask yourself before you forget the questions.
Give yourself the space to be honest, even if that honesty provokes change.
It's likely you're this busy because you're either working for something or because you're avoiding something. It could be both. But you need to keep asking yourself--constantly, routinely, truthfully--is this how I want to keep living? Am I using my time the way I want to? What do I wish I could make time for?
Listen to your own answers. The hardest part for me is to act on them, but that's the most important thing to do. We have to try.
So here's to trying. Here's to not subscribing to destructive attitudes. Here's to learning your limits.
It's a hard, personal path, but it's one worth taking.
