Have you noticed in relatively recent times that asking people how they are elicits the response “Busy”? I’m experiencing this more and more and to be honest, I find it a little flippant. I don’t think there is a single person on the face of the earth who is not in some way or another occupied with something. Even the poorest or simplest of people are engaged. I have taken some time to considering this ever emerging phenomenon of “busyness” and thought I would take some time to comment and share with you.
More so than ever before in the history of the world, we have an abundance of technology to make our lives simpler and more efficient. Items such as dishwashers, dryers, mobile phones, computers, 3D printers, digital cameras, MP3 players – you name it, the list is literally exhausting to contemplate. Even cars have become infinitely smarter than even 5 years ago – lane collision avoidance systems, GPS, auto wipers, dusk sensing headlamps are just a few of the modern features of new cars today. Sometimes I actually wonder if technology is getting smarter, are we the human race becoming less intelligent with our endless reliance on technology?
If you think back 100 years ago and how long it took to complete seemingly meaningless tasks such as cooking dinner, doing the grocery shopping, communicating with family and friends located far away and getting the kids off to school – consider exactly how long it took to actually do these. The technology back then is impossible to compare to what we have available to us today. Cooking a dinner could well have taken half a day. Grocery shopping could have taken days – depending on how close you lived to the nearest store. Writing letters and getting them to a Post Office could have taken a day or more. And again, depending on how far away the nearest school was, taking kids to and from school could well have taken all day every day necessitating staff. I can only guess all of this was extremely labour intensive, not to mention expensive relative to income at the time and the absence of “welfare” as we currently know it.
In proportion to what we earn today, devices, machines, whitegoods etc are extremely affordable to the average westerner and I think it is needless to say that most of us own washing machines, clothes dryers, dishwashers, mobile phones and computers. They all make our life so much easier by freeing up a considerable amount of time. Just look at our own parents and what they did for us back in the 60s, 70s and even 80s. If you are anything like me, I grew up without a clothes dryer, dishwasher, air conditioner, microwave oven, mobile phone or computer. And so what do we do with all of this ‘extra’ time that these devices and machines have given us?? We fill up the time. It’s a bit like buying a bigger house – we inevitably fill it up with ‘stuff’.
Now I’m not here to judge anyone about their lifestyle choices, however what I have noticed is that the very word “busy” means different things to different people. The dictionary definition means:
- Actively and attentively engaged in work or a pastime: busy with her work;
- Not at leisure; otherwise engaged: He couldn’t see any visitors because he was busy;
- Full of or characterized by activity: a busy life;
- (Of a telephone line) in use by a party or parties and immediately accessible;
- Officious; meddlesome; prying;
- Ornate, disparate, or clashing in design or colours; cluttered with small, unharmonious details; fussy: The rug is too busy for this room.
- To keep occupied; make or keep busy: In summer, he busied himself keeping the lawn in order.
So you see the very word “busy” can mean many different things dependant on the circumstance to which it is applied to.
Having said all of this, however, I do tend to feel that it is becoming a very over-used verb. To me, doing the washing, taking the kids to school and doing the grocery shopping is not what I would term “busy”, however many would. So why is it we are saying this more than we did 100 years ago? I’m convinced my Grandmother never told people how very “busy” she was all the time – particularly when someone asked how she was, despite the fact she would have been performing the same tasks as we all need to perform today in the form of washing, cooking, cleaning, shopping, paying bills etc etc. I would argue she would have been considerably ‘busier’ with those tasks as they would have taken much longer with the absence of technology.
My conclusion is that we live in a very fast-paced world. With the advent of the internet, there is an absolute abundance of information thrown our way constantly. We are bombarded with advertising messages, slogans, pictures, social media, e-mails, voicemails, reality TV shows – it is just endless. And it is easy to get caught up in it all. It can sometimes make us feel overwhelmed and trick us into an illusion that we really are “busy”. Why else is there the highest incidence of diagnosed depression in history? I’m only speculating on that, but wouldn’t you agree that the constant bombardment is exhausting at times? It doesn’t surprise me that so many are experiencing breakdowns – it is challenging at times to keep up with it all. A business associate of mine recently shared on Facebook the words “I don’t have time is the grown up version of the dog ate my homework”. That is rather prophetic I think because I feel it really reads as “homework is just not my priority”. After all, saying that you are too busy for something is just an indication that it is not a priority to you. And in MLM/Network Marketing, it is one of the most common objections.
So the next time you tell someone how busy you are consider what the priorities are in your life. Really think about it. Particularly if you are talking to a prospect. In that context, I would highly recommend never using those words. Put yourself in their shoes – is it something you really want to hear from someone else? I challenge you for the next 30 days, every time you catch yourself saying the words “I’ve been so busy”, stop yourself and consider what you are really communicating and is that the message you want to convey about who you really are and what you are up to.
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