Are You Too Busy?

By: Michael Beiter

The number one obstacle to consistent fitness and nutrition action is busyness. I read this passage to clients when they cite busyness as their biggest challenge.

"In logical terms, our situations are impossible.

It can't be the case that you MUST do more than you CAN do.

That notion doesn't make any sense: if you truly don't have time for everything you want to do, or feel you ought to do, then, well, you don't have time - no matter how grave the consequences.

So, technically, it's irrational to feel troubled by an overwhelming to-do list.

You'll do what you can do, you won't do what you can't, and the tyrannical inner voice insisting you must do everything is simply mistaken.

We rarely stop to consider things so rationally because that means confronting the painful truth of our limitations:

Which balls will you drop?

Who are you going to disappoint?

What ambitions need abandoning?

Which roles do you fail at?

Instead of confronting unpleasant truths, we address busyness by making ourselves busier." - Oliver Burkeman

Me: Try to stop pouring into an overflowing bucket. Confront the unpleasant decisions head-on and learn your limits, the most important of which is your lifespan: about 4000 weeks, give or take.