There seems to be a trend in the world today that encourages people of all ages to be busy. Moms should be attempting to balance multiple children’s schedules with their husbands needs as well as their own obligations. College students should be presidents of clubs, members of sports teams, working hard in their classes, and volunteering or employed in their spare time. Even younger children are encouraged to participate in a variety of activities to maximize their skills in hopes of excelling in a certain realm. We find pleasure in bragging about how much we have on our plates. I’m as guilty as anyone else of complaining and repeatedly talking about just how much I have to do and how little time I have to do it, but not doing anything to change that reality.
I recently found myself stressing about the ongoing list of things I needed to get done. As I remembered more and more obligations that I had, I started to wonder what I had gotten myself into. If many of these things were more of a hassle or bother to me, why was I doing them in the first place? Many of the items in question were non-essential and purely extracurricular yet there I was, overwhelmed and stressed by the sheer number of things I had committed to and the workload that resulted from that. Why did I do this to myself?
The first answer that popped into my head was, “Well, the opportunity arose and you didn’t have anything currently filling that hour of your schedule, so naturally you had to fill that time.” Instead of allowing myself a bit of free time to relax and enjoy some quiet or perhaps do something that wasn’t strictly scheduled, I felt the need to continue the steady stream of productivity. There is such a pressure to be busy and constantly engaged that it leads to an overload of stress and a lack of time to simply exist and enjoy. A certain level of productivity and planned activities is healthy and necessary. But, there is a distinct point in which that busy lifestyle becomes overwhelming and then the reward is not nearly as sweet as it should be because of the pain and stress to even get there.
Instead of idealizing the pursuit of having one jam-packed day after another, we should be focusing on excelling in just a few areas that we are really passionate about and that bring joy to our lives. If we’re able to spend more time on the things that we really care about, our efforts will be far more genuine and everyone will benefit from the happiness and easing of stress that results.
The next time that an opportunity comes up that you may be able to squeeze into your schedule but don’t particularly want to do, say no. There’s no shame in not having something to do at every second of each day. Being so busy that you’re unhappy or overstressed is not impressive; being able to prioritize what truly makes you happy and creating a life and schedule around those things, however, is something not many people are able to do.
