People who talk about being busy, aren’t really busy. If they were so busy, they certainly wouldn’t find time to talk about it. Truly busy people are just doing stuff, not talking about it. (Side note: I believe the same is true for confident people—they don’t talk about being confident, they just are—and smart people don’t talk about being smart, they just are.)

Back to “busy” people. People who talk about being busy seem to always exist in a chaotic bubble in which they are presenting that they are in awe of the chaos. In fact, they seem to be connected to the chaos in deep ways—like by interjecting themselves into issues outside of their role. They become implicated into everything and anything. However, I would argue that this tendency is less a demonstration of the chaos around them, and more a demonstration of their need to be needed, involved, and in the know. If a person is truly not a part of the chaos, she would be working to change the chaos, or change her relationship to the chaos. If she’s not doing those things, she’s likely adding to or a core part of the chaos itself. 

If you find yourself having the tendency to need to be needed and to get involved in issues outside of your purview, take a step back and assess your role in the chaos. Are you creating or accelerating it? Does it feel like it’s all around you and you’re not sure how to make change in it? If you can recognize the chaos, the best way to slow it down is to start acting like you are not in chaos. Modeling calm decision making may feel difficult, especially when people around you make decisions reactively. The goal is to move your culture from one that puts out fire after fire, to one that prevents fires in the first place.

Have you ever been addicted to being “busy”? Tell us about it in the comments below.