Have you ever noticed how sometimes you will wake up in the morning with a solution to a problem, or a new way to approach something? Something unique has happened — You have given your brain a bit of time to process…..and voila! Just think what you might accomplish if you were not so busy. Now I am convinced that when we are too busy and move too fast, we miss a lot of what makes life lovely. Taking time to smell the roses might be an old cliche, but it is more important in today’s society than ever before.
If “busy”describes you, the world seems bent on keeping you that way. Being “busy” is tantamount to saying one is important and doing important things. If you admit you have free time, you might as well confess to laziness and being second-rate. Why have we come to this? What was wrong with leisurely meals, front porch sitting, lazy Sunday afternoons? When did these things come to mean wasting time? I have noticed that when I slow down, I become more approachable. People will actually engage with me, even ask me for help rather that just get out of my way. That is definitely good for relationships.
Take inventory of how you use your time and decide what you could eliminate….or delegate…to give yourself a little more margin. Dallas Willard was a university professor I greatly admired, though I never met him and he is now deceased. He would say “Ruthlessly eliminate hurry from your life.” Working full time as a physician, raising 4 children, and doing my own housekeeping left me craving a slow-down…for sanity’s sake. And when I would take a few hours and decelerate, I noticed that after a little while, I would begin to actually have a few creative thoughts. I wondered if, just maybe, the key to problem solving and efficiency might actually be to go a little slower, rather than faster.
All of the great works of art were not accomplished by extremely busy people. Hurry just does not lead to excellence. Maybe that is why excellence is so hard to find. Most people do not have their most creative moments when they are juggling social media (just read what they write!) or listening to the same sad news story from the umpteenth angle or impatiently waiting in a fast food line for another lousy meal that they will eat alone in the car.
Enjoy NOT being busy. It is no cause for shame.
Take the time to cook at home, enjoy the smell of cookies in the oven, or the quiet of a good book by a fire, a long chat with your spouse, or even a decent night’s sleep. You may find that you actually become more creative and thereby more productive!
Put some margin in your life — at the very least, when someone else needs you, there is a chance you will be available to help.
