I’m a couple weeks late to the ‘New Year, New You’ talk and hype. I have done this purposely. You have gotten it and are getting it from every media source. The majority of the messages these past few weeks and every time this year is that ‘YOU SHOULD DO SOMETHING to better your life.’ This year, I want you to focus on NOT DOING.
In my 5 pillars, I discuss that most people are running from bears on a daily basis. The ‘bears’ are stressors physically, chemically, and emotionally. These stressors are things categorized as Deficient and/or Toxic to sustain health.
One of the biggest Toxicities we have in life is being busy. If you ask my staff, I hate the word busy. I cringe when people say, ‘I know you’re busy….” Busy means to be ‘foolishly active.’ My 1 and 3 year old are busy and that’s ok. Their role right now is to experience life and the world around them for the first time. They have no responsibilities to provide for themselves or our family.
Busyness has become a weird standard of measure of our attempt to keep up with the Joneses. It’s a currency gaining more prestige than the latest iPhone, car, or NFL games attended. The more I meet with people, hear their story, examine them, analyze lab work, and schedule them, busyness might be the #1 bear attack that causes the 5 pillars, which led them to their condition they are seeking help. We try to cram more things into the same amount of time each day, often looking back at the day wondering what we actually got accomplished.
The solution? We feel we didn’t accomplish that much so it means we have to do MORE. Since we can’t add time to our day, we have to add speed. The top reason for speed is to obtain things you don’t really need to impress people you don’t really like.