Why I am Taking “Busy” Out of My Vocabulary

How many times have you had a conversation with somebody and they’ve asked how you have been? And your response is “busy”? And then you in turn ask them how they have been and they also reply with “busy”?

If you think about it nowadays everyone is “so busy” and the majority of our conversations are shaped around the fact of how much we have on our plates. But why are we doing this to ourselves?

A couple weeks ago we were hosting family at our home. We were all sitting around the living room, enjoying our homemade pizzas while sipping wine and craft beer and we were sharing stories of the past. Stories of packing up the whole family and traveling up north to boat every weekend in the summertime, the yearly vacations to the bunkhouse on the beach, walking to the convenience store as a kid and buying all the candy you could afford with the $3 your grandma gave you, or sitting around the camp fire strumming the guitar.

What I learned from sharing those stories is no one talked about how busy they were. No one talked about driving to and from the sports practices or weekly trips to the grocery store. No one talked about being exhausted from mowing the lawn and doing the laundry. No one talked about feeling busy.

So I decided to take the word “busy” out of my vocabulary. I will no longer respond to a conversation or a question with “I’m so busy” instead I will respond with how I really am. I will stop focusing on the little things that make my life extra busy and focus on the things fill up my cup. So when I sit around the living room in 30 years I will talk about how much fun I had the summer Stellaluna did 12 weddings, and all the weeknight “boat picnics” and the trips up north and the sandwiches we ate, the people we met and the experiences we had.

So my friends, I encourage you to take “busy” out of your vocabulary and focus on the things that are creating memories.

How can you make your life a little less busy so you can focus on the important things?

Comment below!

Photos by Hanna Adams Photography