Is it just me or is everyone super freaking busy? I don’t mean busy — I mean really busy. Too busy to pee busy. What’s up with that? What is going on? You don’t have to look too far to witness the overwhelm. Stop for a minute and look around. How many people do you see with their heads down, gazing at their devices? Everybody right! Then you ask them, “How are you doing?”. And the response is predictably, you guessed it, “I’m busy.” When was the last time you invited someone to something with relatively short notice and got a response other than “I’d love to, but I’m busy.”? I guess there is good news to this…The world can’t end today or in the near future because we are all too busy to attend the Second Coming of Christ.
Now the thing that gets me — We seem so busy yet are we anymore productive? The GDP has been hovering around 1.65% growth annually for the last 6 or so years, and by the way, that is not break out performance. So we are not more productive. Ok, if we are not that much more productive, we must then be way more fulfilled. Oh, that’s not true. Hmmm…..Ok, then we must be spending all our time building and creating relationships and strengthening our communities. Oh wait, that does not seem to be happening either. So if we are not more productive, not more fulfilled, and we aren’t building a ton more greater, deeper, richer relationships, what in the hell are we doing? Are we really this busy and just surviving? What is up? Wanna look?
This time thing is wacky. It is non-negotiable. Once it’s gone, poof….it outta here. And, there is not a damn thing we can do about it. And, what is worse is the longer we live the faster it goes. (I’m not going to get into the whole time/space continuum thing here.) We cannot control time, so what do we do. The only thing we can do, we need to deal with ourselves and our relationship to time. If we look at that, and we are “super freaking busy,” then by default we have created a relationship and context to time that there is “not enough time.” I love that context because it is freaking nuts. Time is a constant 24 hours in the day, yet we are willing to argue with the forces of nature about there is not enough of it. Please take a second and realize how funny that is. We would rather argue with the almighty than actually deal with constraints of 24 hours in a day. I know I am joking around a bit, but I want you too look, if you are really operating from a context of “not enough time,” what is really going on is, you are not accepting or honoring what you have. Werner Erhard says “Transformation begins with a powerful relationship to what is so.” What is so is, there are 24 hours in the day, not more, not less. There is no scarcity and there is no such thing as “not enough time”. Yet that is what we keep hearing. Is everyone crazy? No, it is just the context in which people are operating from. So if the problem is not out there, then we know where it really is don’t we. Right here. Our relationship to time.
Ok, let’s consider our relationship to time is sort of made up. Time is a constant. It does not care what you think of it, or feel about it. And no matter what you do you aren’t going to change it. Time does not give a shit what you think or feel. I know, kind of harsh, and so much about the relationship to time thing. So if it’s not our relationship to time, what is left? Let’s try our relationship to ourself. Yikes, I know. Consider the context of not enough time is really a context of “not enough” me. In Marshall Goldsmith’s book “What got you here won’t get you there”, he speaks of the “problem” of adding too much value. You know that person, the one who has to add their two cent, who needs to do more even though the project is complete, who worries if they get the deal even after everyone has said yes. Maybe that someone is you. The issue with this, is your issue with you. Your fear that you are not enough, or you don’t have enough, or you may not get enough. It is a context of scarcity. And most of all it is a set up for unbelievable disappointment. It’s like filling a never ending hole. No matter what you put in, it won’t ever be enough.
Do you want the really sad news? That context of not enough is gonna be with you until we put you in a hole and throw dirt on your face. Sucks don’t it. So now what, you ask? Well the only thing we can do, get responsible for it. Accept it for what it is, a context. What is so cool about context is we can choose them or not. And we can create a new context. Since this context of not enough has been informing our decision making, we can look for a different context to inform our decision making.
What if we subtlety shift the context of “not enough” to one of “what will it take to be fulfilled.” What if we begin to look at being fulfilled in our career, or relationships, and heaven forbid our bodies. What drives fulfillment? One place to look would be in the area of, what am I really here for? That may be a question worth asking? Why am I here, and what do I want to do with this time I have?
Who knows what it is, but my guess is there are seven billion folks on the planet, and there could be seven billion unique purposes for our existence. If we take the time, I know you are really busy and can’t quite fit it in now, but humor me for a minute. If we take the time to inquire into what is available and why a force far greater than any of us, installed us in this place, at this unique time in history, we may begin to discover or even better, create a purpose. We may begin to connect to that thing that is greater than us that gives us being and action. For it is when we discover our purpose, who we are as our highest self, when we connect to our true intention, that is when we discover our authentic voice.
It is from that place, the one of connection to our purpose and the creation of our voice, that we begin being pulled into action. This action we are drawn to does not live as burdensome. It lives as our expression. It is the alignment between the discovery of our highest self, the creation of your authentic voice, and the being pulled it to action as an expression that, when aligned, creates a sort of flow that is both satisfying and fulfilling. It creates a sense of workability in our daily activities, and job. We begin to see what matters and what is just not worth it. Saying no becomes…not so difficult. Choices become clearer, and you begin to have the experience of agency in your own life. You get a say in how it goes.
When this occurs in an organization, it creates that forever sought increase in productivity and performance. It creates structural integrity into our systems and organizations. On a personal level, it is completely aligned with what Gandhi said, “happiness is our thoughts, our words, and our actions aligned”. When we are operating in alignment, in integrity, with flow, we cease to have the experience of busy. We connect to the present and are engaged in what ever endeavor we choose.
Life is freaking precious and urgent, my friends. Please, don’t piss it away pursuing things that don’t serve you. Live fully, and enjoy.
Thank you so much for the opportunity to share my thoughts and ideas with you; it has been both my honor and my joy. Thank you.
Namaste
*If you are dying to get some more of Mike, check out his first book on leadership on Amazon!
Mike Shereck is an executive and Leadership coach. He is also the author of “Berwyn Rules”. Mike is the President of the Mike Shereck Group, and executive coaching firm, and the Founder, and CEO of Transformational Leadership Experience, Inc.
www.mikeshereckgroup.com
