InBreaking Up with Busy: Real-Life Solutions for Overscheduled Women, Yvonne Tally writes, "Once a seemingly innocuous habit, busyness is now a culture, an addictive attraction promising the opportunity to fit in, get ahead, and be the best." Tally suggests that breaking up with our busyness requires us to ask ourselves a lot of questions, including one that really struck a chord for this recovering workaholic: "What is the price of your pace?" The price of being overbooked and overscheduled is always going to be too high for me. I now much prefer a snail's pace to the frenzied pace I used to keep when I thought my only value was in what I did, not in who I am.
What is your relationship to busyness? Do you engage in it as a behavior?
Is being busy a regular refrain in your vocabulary and maybe even a part of your identity? There's nothing to be ashamed of if the answers to the above questions are yes, but it is something to be aware of.
When we know better, we do better. We release our attachment to busy and find fulfillment in a slow but steady pace.