Stop being a busy clown and start being a leader
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Your ego likes you to be busy. It believes it makes you look and feel important. Like the conversation at the office:
“How are you?” says x.
“Really busy!” says y.
Y could be almost anyone. It’s such a regular response that it becomes meaningless. We’re competing over how busy we are.
When did being busy become a measure of success or value? No wonder the workplace is full of people who are stressed out and over-worked.
Your ego likes this. Your ego feeds on being the best. The busiest. Your ego believes that being busy is the same thing as being successful.
It is not.
You say you are busy when what you really mean is you are stressed. You don’t speak the truth because in many offices environments, it’s not cool to say you’re stressed. It’s not cool to turn down work.
You conform to how you think you should be, rather than how you really want to be. The real answer to the “How are you?” question is: “I’m stressed (because I’m too busy and I’m overworked).”
How much value are you adding with the things that you choose to do?
Checking your emails every 5 minutes might make you busy but does it really add value? Does doing everything that someone asks you to do add value? What if you said No?
Are you constantly juggling things to do, never quite finishing them or constantly multi-tasking to try and get everything done in parallel?
Leave the juggling to the clowns. It’s time for a change. It’s time to be a leader.
We can all be leaders in our own lives. It requires us to do something different. Being a leader means making powerful conscious choices that serve you and your world. It means letting go of the things that no longer serve you and the things that do not add value, even if someone else thinks you should do them. It requires you to challenge the status quo, to step out from the masses and dare to be different.
How much of a busy clown are you?
What will it take for you to be a leader?
Putting it into practice
- Consider the things you are doing that make you busy.
- Let go of one small thing this week and notice the impact. Most people find that when they stop doing something they’ve always done, nobody even notices or cares.
- Try it and see.
Stop being a busy clown. Start being a leader. Nobody said it was easy but your free time will certainly be greater.
With love,
Jude. x
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