“Being in a hurry. Getting to the next thing without fully entering the thing in front of me. I cannot think of a single advantage I’ve ever gained from being in a hurry. But a thousand broken and missed things, tens of thousands, lie in the wake of all the rushing…. Through all that haste I thought I was making up time. It turns out I was throwing it away.”
– Ann Voskamp, One Thousand Gifts
This time of year is crazy, it really is. With weddings every weekend and editing all week, I fall into the trap that being busy equals success and I feel like the world makes us think that it’s okay. The busier we are, the more successful we are, the more projects we are working on, the more people watching – more, more, more. It’s just the way we are, we always want more. If I’m being honest, I am a pretty productive person, always running around multitasking and setting deadlines and seeing how many ounces I can squeeze out of every day. It’s a blessing and a curse, because when our desire to push our productivity level to a new place overruns our desire to fully live, we are in trouble. I want to stop this plague of people running around with tired eyes and no direction, I want to quit thinking that being so busy that you can’t keep your head on straight is okay. Really, it’s not, and it’s not living if we are really being honest. We fall into the habit of responding to a normal “how are you?” with exasperated sighs and repeated sentiments that merely equal the fact that we are “so busy” and “so involved” and have “so much to do.” Stop, just stop it, Jenna.
This past week was crazy, we had something every single night and made awesome plans that tied up a lot of our time. It was far from a normal work week and it left my mind feeling like an internet browser with a million tabs opened. I would start a project, remember something else that needed to get done, abandon the first, and never get anywhere. We need to work smarter, not harder – we need to stop glorifying the crazy work hours and start looking for ways to streamline our work so that we can enjoy our life. I quite literally felt as though I was chasing my tail and I had to just slow down. I set my phone aside for a good portion of the week (I’m sorry if you tried to reach me!) and I sat down with only music playing to paint and sit and read. I needed it, we all need it. When we are always in a hurry to do the next thing, we miss the present. We don’t gain a darn thing from running around like crazy people, we make life into one big blur and I think that’s the saddest thing ever.
Sure, being busy has it’s blessings. You are forced to find a groove, to make time to relax, but a lot of times the quiet gets pushed to the end of the never ending to do list and you are left hustling and bustling your way through life one week at a time. I’m one of those people who does their best work when they are busy – I work well under pressure and a full plate makes me stay on task. It’s great to be busy but no one is going to look down on you if you actually set aside a little time for yourself. We need it. We weren’t made to operate on fumes and we don’t deserve that because it isn’t living if we aren’t actively participating in the present. Hold your spouses hand, sip your coffee slowly, read a book, lay in bed a few minutes long, say a prayer, go on a walk… these are the things that will fuel your soul. I think one of the greatest challenges of this life is finding balance and we all need a little more of it in our life.
Do whatever makes you come alive – not just what makes you a living. The world needs people who have come fully alive and I want this revolution to start today. Let’s stop the over glorification of busy and over-working and start celebrating smart work. The truly genus people are those who can balance a heavy-workload with the demands of life. I want to reach that somehow elegantly balanced life – I’m not there yet but I am making progress. This is my challenge for your week: set aside time for yourself, make an hour, a day out of it and do whatever your heart feels. Shut your phone off, turn off the tv and just be. Allow yourself to think, to feel, to be actively participating in life in the here and now. Stop checking your Facebook page, don’t read your emails and just allow yourself to feel that slowing down is what you need. Instead of glorifying busy, why don’t we glorify life? Let’s slow it down, folks, if even for an hour. Ready? Go.
Yes and yes.