Writing out the title of this post, is the first time I actually realized how close the two words “Busyness” and “Business” are. And part of it occurred because I was trying to figure out how to properly spell Busyness, which led me to type Busi-ness.
How do we spend most of our time? Especially the time spent at work?
Is it working on things that actually move our business? Or is it work that fills up our quota of busyness. It’s easy to fill up a schedule with tasks, to focus on the trivialities, the things that are a rush, the noise. It’s much harder to say “no” to things, to sit down and shut off the email to focus on a task that only you can solve, to decide on deciphering the signal from the noise. And ultimately it seems to come down to the simple (not easy) act of deliberately choosing what you will focus on.
Don’t forget that “busy” not only means, full of activity and engaged in action. It also means full of distracting details and foolishly or intrusively active.
Taking the time to look up the work “business” one definition that jumped out at me was, a serious activity requiring time and effort and usually the avoidance of distractions; maximum effort.
There are a lot of people who don’t like the sound of either word. But when I look at that definition of business I can’t help but feel that it’s the type of work and activity most of us long for, to be consumed in something that causes us to focus and bring the best of ourselves.
Each day we choose to move forward and slot in either that “y” or an “i”. And how we live those days are what creates our habits, our patterns, our stories. If you’re like me, you often forgot how powerful you are every morning, every moment. Choose wisely.