Every successful person I have ever met is busy. It appears that most successful people are also “yes” people. Have you ever heard the adage “If you want something done, find a busy person to do it”? There does seem to be a plague of laziness out there, and busy people believe that staying in motion and going full speed is the antidote for sloth.
I disagree. Although it is true that your success has come in the context of hard work, it is also true that your current limitation is a product of your busyness. Busyness is a hypnotic trance that hinders growth. To break through to the next level, you are going to have to wake up and make some different choices. Most industrious people don’t like the word no. Their conscience has convinced them that to achieve more, they must do more, seize every opportunity, and go even harder, day and night. Busy, busy, busy, busy, busy. A hypnotic beat of weariness.
It is time for you to wake up and say no. It is time to quit. But quitting means failing, right? Wrong. It is a liberating choice to quit everything except what is best.
Wake Up and Get Real
Are you real? Are you authentic? Do you really know who you are and where you are going? Do you know what you really want? Are you living your life the way you want to live it? Are you comfortable in your own skin, regardless of what others think about you?
Do you have passion for what you are up to? Do your goals inspire you? Do you live each day aligned with your bigger purpose? Do you have vision and direction, or are you just drifting? To answer such questions, you must invest time and attention. It takes honesty and soul searching.
Waking up to reality is about integrity. It’s displaying on the outside what is on the inside. It’s being whole and congruent. No more people pleasing. No more intimidation and manipulation. No hidden agendas or duplicity. Just the real deal.
Waking up to reality is a choice to create real relationships by engaging, listening, caring, and serving others from the heart. Not because you have to, but because you want to. It is a commitment to understand yourself, then others, and then choosing to live your life in relationship with others based on mutual understanding and agreements.
Waking up to reality is a choice to own your life. It is understanding what you want, and then making the changes and taking the actions to bring it about. Having what you want is rooted in being the person you aspire to be.
Wake Up and Think
People are too busy to succeed. Like hamsters on a wheel, they run faster and faster and go nowhere. Like a person in quicksand, the harder they struggle, the deeper they sink. So what is the answer? They need to cease struggling, calm down and think.
The solution to your problem is not “out there.” You have the answer. Wake up and think. You don’t need more information, or another seminar, or another google search. Stop….. Breathe…... Calm……. and then think. Once the dust has settled, and the noise has quieted, the answer will appear. You will know. You will see the next step. You will realize that what you have been procrastinating must be done. You will see what is missing and know what to do.
Or you can continue to numb yourself with the narcotic of ceaseless activity, existing in a seemingly never-ending stupor of adrenaline, tiredness, overwhelm, and frustration. You can choose to continue to avoid it all by immersing yourself in a pillow filled, cotton candy, shallow sea of comfort, pleasure, and denial; get lost in a video game, or distracted by the third round of golf, or a television binge, or intoxicated with the drama of social media, gossip, or some other non-productive, destructive behavior that drains your bank account and dulls your mind. This is not a guilt trip. This is a kind wake-up call to break your stupor so you can escape destruction and find true satisfaction and freedom.
It’s time to stop the madness………. and think. Time to choose responsibility and accountability. It’s time to allow the answers to appear, and then take focused action. Clarity plus action equals results. Today can be the start of the change you have been wanting. You can focus. You can change. You can create a wonderful and satisfying life. It begins by stopping, waking up……… thinking clearly, and then acting.
This is not complicated. If you will allow the craziness to dissipate, and then open your eyes and patiently look, you will begin to see brilliant simple answers to address your problems.
Wake Up and Serve
As you wake up and look around, you will also see that the real joy in life is giving. Serving others with a big heart and open hand brings a deep, peaceful sense of purpose. Miserliness and selfishness are a constricted, dark, depressing, and tragic place. Love, encouragement, acceptance, forgiveness, and understanding are light and magical.
If this is true, you may wonder why people don’t do more of it? One reason is that they have not made it their focused priority. Most people are too busy worrying about what they lack and stressing about what they might lose. It is a wearying, desperate focus on surviving. They are too busy and distracted to focus on others because they are fighting to protect what they have and proving that they are right. Like a screaming toddler clutching a broken toy, they don’t realize that if they would just relax and let go, they would discover an abundant world where it is truly more blessed to give than to receive.
Wake Up and Create a World Class Team
Behold the tired, busy business owner. She is so harried that she only sees her employees as a necessary evil and an irritation. She focuses on what they are doing wrong, and what she feeds grows. If she would just slow down and take a closer look, she could see within those employees an amazing potential to become a world class team. She would realize that what is missing is her leadership. But she has no time to invest in becoming a great leader.
Poor communication is prevalent. An effective leader invests time asking good questions, then listening to understand. From that understanding, she facilitates the creation of agreements. A team that is listened to and understood will commit and be accountable to such created agreements. Learning how to communicate effectively and create agreements takes focus and a change of habit. But she feels there is no time to learn these soft ‘people” skills. She is way too busy to learn how to serve others and create wild success.
Please wake up! My friend, it can be different. You can learn and change. If you will choose to get real, think, and serve, the bondage of busyness can be broken, and beautiful outcomes will begin to emerge. As you learn how to bring your team together around a common vision and goal, together you will create amazing outcomes. You must first lead yourself, and then learn to lead them. Start today. Find a good coach to help you change. Reject mediocrity in yourself and in your team. Wake up and become a world class leader and create a world class team.
