Do you glorify the grind?

"How's your day going?"

Busy, right?

How did I know your were going to say that?!

It’s not hard to guess, really. Countless commentators have noted the ‘epidemic’ of busyness that seems to characterise 21st century life. In fact, I sometimes wonder what previous generations used to talk about, not having so much busyness to complain of.

There may be a bigger problem than being busy, though. What if we’ve glorified it? What if we’re using it as a badge of honour? What if we are partly responsible for putting busyness before other things that matter?

Hello, my name's Robert and I am a recovering busyness addict

I don’t just mean I used to be busy, and it was bad, and now I’m avoiding being busy. I mean I had a deeply unhealthy relationship with being busy. It occupied an unhealthy amount of my focus and my conversation. In fact, it contributed WAY too much to my sense of identity and self worth. I was an addict to busyness.

It took COVID and a deep personal crisis to bring me to my senses, and begin my journey to recovery. That recovery has seen me significantly change my work patterns and vow never again to treat a 70-80 hour week as normal.

But much more importantly, getting free has been about a change of mindset. I have had to give up my glorification of busyness. I have had to learn to value and prioritise other things about my work and life – the people I’m with, the purpose I’m pursuing, the rest I’ve had or the flowers I’ve photographed.

Easy? Heck no! Worth it? You bet!