Busy being busy?

I'm not sure if you have noticed but everyone is busy... or at least they tell us they are busy.... 

"Good thanks" has been superseded by "Oh you know... busy," as the standard response to "How are you?"

But is it really the case... are people really as busy as they think, or have we just filled our day up with stuff.... which we could survive without doing...

When was the last time you did a spring clean... not of your belongings but of your time habits???

The last time I checked in with my time habits, I managed to save about 5hrs a week, in things I had just fallen into doing since the last time I checked... 

A TV show that I sat and watched, which I really didn't enjoy, and which was rubbish. 
Checking and responding to emails as they come in rather than in a block.
Social networking with people I am not likely to ever have a real conversation with.
Sending 5 text messages backwards and forwards, rather than making 1 quick phone call...


And what do I do with those 5 hours????


Practice not being busy...

 

What makes you happy?

Think back to the last time you were really happy. What were you doing? How did it feel? And arguably most importantly when was that?

Surprisingly many of us will need to head all the way back to our childhood to find really unadulterated happiness, days where we got to do pretty much what we wanted (within our childlike worlds), and enjoyed it.

So how come we might find this difficult as adults? 

There seems to be an assumption amongst us adults that happiness is finite, and something we aim for. Or else it is attached to achieving something like a promotion or getting something like a new car. But do those things really make you 'happy' or is happiness about an awareness of simple pleasures?

To compound this lack of awareness we also seem to feel guilty about expressing our happiness, in case we jinx it. Far better to let people know how 'busy' we are. 

So how come we can be busy all of the time but we can't be happy all of the time?

So if you are up for the challenge to find a happier you- follow the steps below...

The first step: identify things in the present that make you happy. 
The second step: do those things more often
The third step: be happier more often
The fourth step: tell someone you are happy..... you won't jinx it... honest!!! 

What 10 things do you do well?

We are generally very good at knowing what we need to do better but very very bad at being able to say we do something  well..  

"I should do more exercise." 

"I could communicate more." 

"I need to get better at time management." 

"I should work on my presentation skills."

"I need/ should...... (add your own in here!!!)

It is time to put a different perspective on it. After all you didn't get to the ripe old age of (add here whatever age you feel like being), without managing to do some things well.... the tricky part is being able to remember what they are.

So grab that coffee, find somewhere quiet and write down/think of 10 things you do well.... just 10.....

Oh and fight the temptation to be glib..... so..... 'I am good at being on facebook' doesn't count.... but... 'I am good at keeping in touch with people' does!!! 

The reality is that remembering and stating what we are good at is much harder than it sounds. We spend most of our time in the pursuit of improvement- which is great- but if we can't acknowledge our real skills and achievements we risk devaluing the 'improvements' we made in the past and who we are right now in the present. 

So yes, head off into the great future of improving and improvement, but remember the present has a pretty amazing person in it who is good at doing at least 10 things.... and might be astonishingly good at 1 thing... if they had the guts to admit it.....