The Daily Meaning

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Travis Shelton Travis Shelton

Busyness and Happiness

As I was scrolling Facebook yesterday, I stumbled upon the words of my wise friend, Erin. “Don't confuse being BUSY with being HAPPY, and being HAPPY with being BUSY.” I think about this topic often, Not only do I agree with Erin, but I would argue there’s a inverse correlation. Based on my personal experience, and watching others, our happiness seems to be hindered as we get busier and busier. I feel like my life is one big endeavor to de-busy myself on the heels of busying myself. I never feel more meaning when I’m busier. Rather, when I’m busier, I feel more stress, pressure, fatigue, and overwhelmingness. I do a terrible job managing busyness during the work week, and a fantastic job managing it on the weekends. It feels like a life of extremes and contradictions.

As I was scrolling Facebook yesterday, I stumbled upon the words of my wise friend, Erin. “Don't confuse being BUSY with being HAPPY, and being HAPPY with being BUSY.” I think about this topic often, Not only do I agree with Erin, but I would argue there’s a inverse correlation. Based on my personal experience, and watching others, our happiness seems to be hindered as we get busier and busier. I feel like my life is one big endeavor to de-busy myself on the heels of busying myself. I never feel more meaning when I’m busier. Rather, when I’m busier, I feel more stress, pressure, fatigue, and overwhelmingness. I do a terrible job managing busyness during the work week, and a fantastic job managing it on the weekends. It feels like a life of extremes and contradictions.

When I’m living with peak meaning and happiness, it’s usually when I’m intentional with my “yes’s” and “no’s”, being mindful of my schedule, leaning into things that truly add value to my family’s life, and pulling away from everything else. To be honest, I think I get it right maybe 10% of the time. But that’s far better than the 0%-1% I used to get it right.

I don’t have answers today. Instead, I’m a work in progress. Most days, I feel like a mess. I’m going to leave you with a great little piece of advice I once heard from the great Jon Acuff. If someone asks you to do something down the road (one week, one month, one year from now), first ask yourself if you would say yes to it if it were tomorrow. If the answer is “no”, then you need to say “no”, as eventually it will be tomorrow. This advice has revolutionized my decision-making process.

Hope you have an awesome, not busy day!

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