To be effective, you must be self-aware and intentional.
“Everyone is busy.
Not everyone is effective.
Many busy people lack self-awareness & assume that because they’re doing a lot, what they are doing is of value.
This is not true.
Only the folks who prioritize intentionality in providing value are being effective.”
-Ray Zingler on Twitter
“I’m just so busy!”
No one cares. Literally no one.
The idea of busy-ness used as an excuse to avoid/not accomplish ‘x’ is the most overplayed bullshit excuse in the history of the world.
Most have time. Most just don’t want to practice the discipline required to maximize their time so they fool themselves with the busy tag to justify not doing ‘x’.
Elon Musk doesn’t have time. He makes it. You’re telling me you have too much going on that you can’t invest in your personal health and performance & attend a 47-minute workout twice a week? LOL.
But there is something even worse than the excuse that the busy illusion fools people into believing about themselves.
Because people are “so busy” they tend to lack the most essential element of personal growth & development: Self-Awareness.
Because many folks lack self-awareness they are under the illusion that because they are busy, what they are doing is effective.
“I’ve got to drop this off, go here, write this proposal for work, coach my kid’s soccer team, pick-up dinner, finish that blog post, go, go, go.”
And because time flies and the minutes bleed into hours and the hours into days, most people tend to stack up weeks, months, and years of believing because they are going fast their time is being used effectively.
I hate to break it to you, but even if you have a nice, pretty schedule for the day printed out or written on the fridge, it doesn’t mean what you’re doing is of value.
In order to ensure what you are doing is of maximized value to the world, you have to be intentional about prioritizing the delivery of value.
As stated above, you have to be self-aware. You have to be intentional. You have to literally PLAN on adding value. Without intentionality, life moves too fast and complacency sets in by default.
When this complacency sets in and you get “too tired” from the “busy-ness” it completes the cycle of the feedback loop.
“I’ve done a lot so it must have been effective.” Cue the restarting of the loop.
Busy fools Joe Schmoe’s, Professionals, Coaches, Teams, & Organizations every day.
The only way to combat the illusion of effort equaling effective is to be self-aware of that fact that it absolutely doesn’t.
Effectiveness requires intent.
