hey amber rae

on (never) feeling busy

My business partner Catharina mentioned two days ago that she never feels busy. This immediately took me by surprise. She never feels busy?!, I thought to myself. I always feel busy!

I asked her to explain and her response has had me thinking about it since. She said that she always does as much as she can, she gives 100% to everything, and that’s as much as she can do each day. Pretty straightforward, right? Then why do I always feel so damn busy?!

I think one key distinction is that Cath knows what she can do well and she sticks with it. Cath said that if she can do something in her head, she can do it in real life and so she does. But if she struggles with it in her head, she tends not to do it.

I find this way of thinking very intriguing as I’m quite different. I’m naturally curious and mostly motivated by unknowns and solving challenges. I imagine the overall vision, first few steps and then I start without certainty of the outcome. Uncertainty excites me because it leaves room for improvisation and serendipity, I feel. 

Either way, I do sometimes find myself feeling busy or exhausted by discovering too many unknowns at once and so, to Cath’s tip, narrowing the breadth of my pursuits so I can apply more depth to a few will likely help.

That said, I also think how we think about our limits is equally important. For Cath, she knows what she can do, does that much each day and gives her all. For me, I tend to think I need to/can do and give more. Combine that thought with the need to put 100% into everything and I have a recipe for feeling busy and potentially overwhelmed. Ah ha! Sounds like I need to accept my limits, devote myself to one idea, and balance what I can do now with what I don’t yet know…

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Notes

  1. itsbeenarealslice reblogged this from heyamberrae
  2. prestia said: Your approach is exactly mine. I’ve spent a good deal of time thinking about this lately and resolved to limiting myself to one thing at a time. It’s hard. I want to do everything this world has to offer the very best I can. There just isn’t time.
  3. runaroundrunaroundheadasplode reblogged this from heyamberrae
  4. mostserindipitous reblogged this from heyamberrae
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