Go, go, go.
We’re always moving and going because social media makes us believe we need to be busy to be happy. We can’t feel content when we’re relaxing, especially when it seems like everyone around us is going on adventures and doing everything we want to do.
Social media has a tendency to play tricks on us. We think everyone is busy and doing something with their family and friends. Social media is designed to show the fun, adventurous and exciting moments.
We don’t see the days when people take a day off and sit on the couch all day watching TV. There are moments in life we don’t share. What we see on social media is only a small fraction of someone’s life.
We can’t expect ourselves to keep up with ten people who share what they’ve done over the past ten days and then try to do everything they’re doing. We can’t live ten lives.
Remove the idea that being busy is good.
Being intentional, thoughtful and mindful is better. What makes you appreciate being alive?
The key word here is you.
Do what you want, not what others want and not what you think others expect from you.
Sometimes, when we take a step back and think about what we truly want, we realize we’ve been living someone else’s life. It’s not at all what we expected of ourselves and, at some point, we got lost.
We were so occupied with trying to stay busy that we forgot who we are.
Our passions and hobbies we enjoyed when we were younger have been ignored. Adulthood somehow put a cover over them. All of this came from thinking we need to do everything as fast as possible and always look busy.
We accumulated these habits from others. Most of the time, it’s people we don’t even know who influence us through social media.
We’ve lost ourselves and feel overwhelmed with everything we think we need to do.
The solution is to declutter our habits.
Just like in spring, we need to clean things up. We need to look at what we’re doing, why we’re doing it and whether it still serves us.
Ryan Holiday wrote it best:
“There’s only one way out of this mess. Ruthlessly decluttering. We have to eliminate, eliminate, eliminate. Get rid of baggage. Let go of beliefs… let go of worries. Let go of people. We have to stop buying things. And stop saying yes. We must free ourselves from the weight of excess. Shed what’s unnecessary. Clean away what’s holding us down.”
It won’t be easy, but it will be necessary.
You’ll feel lighter and freer once you’ve let go of the need to always be “busy.”
Take care.