I’m not really sure how many times over the years I have said that ‘ultimately it is your choice whether you are a victim of circumstance or the master of your own destiny,’ but it would be quite a few.

It is a statement that I truly believe. It is also something that I’ve used to highlight to many people how they go about their everyday lives.

There is one area of everyday life that I would like you to evaluate using my statement, and that area is:

Busy 

Is your level or degree of busy:  

Real or perceived? 
Fact or fiction?
Belief or desire?
Wanted or needed?

Now, before we get into all the reasons busy is wrongly used, I think it is fair to point out that busy is also used – and used regularly to cover some other areas of our approach to life.

I have seen busy used to cover such things as:

Lack of confidence
Lack of understanding
Lack of knowledge
Lack of self-belief

And although I don’t condone using busy as reason to hide these problems, I think of them differently when I compare it with busy being used to cover up:

Lack of productivity
Lack or responsibility
Lack of desire
Lack of resourcefulness

There is no doubt that one of the commonalities of everyday life is that we are all usually time poor. 

However, there are people who continue to use busy as an excuse, which is problematic, because they think it is a good excuse. In reality, using busy really gives others an insight into some of your deficiencies.

Although you probably don’t mean it this way, being busy becomes more than an excuse: it says a lot about you:

You are unorganised
You are undisciplined
You cannot control your focus
You cannot prioritise correctly

But in the end and above all else as an excuse is saying:

I will not take responsibility for what I haven’t done.

Busy in my experience is one of the greatest and most over-used excuses for lack of productivity, performance and responsibility. Think about it: whenever something doesn’t get done it was because someone was “too busy”.

As I said above, ‘ultimately it is your choice whether you are a victim of circumstance or the master of your own destiny.’

Don’t use the excuse of being busy to allow yourself or others to think less of you.

You are better than that.

The Journey Continues!