What Am I Paying Attention to Lately?

What am I paying attention to?

The “badge” of business. I recently recorded a podcast (currently in post production and you can find it in the meantime on YouTube or on my LinkedIn page) with Garima Gupta on how being busy has become the new way in which we “Keep up with the Joneses.” For many, it’s become a badge of honor, a measure of worthiness, equal to our identity as an accomplished person.

What utter nonsense!

In reality, we are burning ourselves out with busyness… and I’ll confess to having many days when I have been “so busy!” and accomplished absolutely nothing. I was recently on a call with a wonderful business associate. I enjoy her so much, I was happy to schedule time to talk with her about the book she wants to write and the process I used to create my own. Several times during the call, she mentioned how much she appreciated me taking the time, because she knew how busy I was. I appreciated her appreciation… and, as I got to thinking about it later, I realized it was misplaced. I was spending time with her because I genuinely like her. I was spending time because many people graciously gave of their time in helping me create my book and it was part of my “paying it forward.” But mostly I was doing it because helping support her made me feel like I was empowering her with information.

Just like how we budget and spend our money, how we budget and spend our time is a reflection of our values. One of my values?is empowerment… and I was getting to live that value. When we live our values, we feel good. We are congruous. Chemically, it releases oxytocin in our brains – the “feel good” hormone.

Let’s release ourselves from the badge of busyness?and get back to living in alignment with what makes us feel like ourselves. That’s how I’m getting to measure my worthiness, thank you very much.

Or at least I’m trying!

Onward!