What If The Thing Making Us Too Busy Is The Feeling We’re Too Busy?
If you’re reading this, I invite you to think of something you’ve been putting off because you’re “too busy.” For me? It’s making an appointment to have a mammogram done. I’ve been shifting this task from one to-do list to the next for nearly a year now! Oof.
Every time this task pops into my mind, I spend time and mental energy on it. In all honesty, if I had to add up all of those moments, I have spent hours and hours worrying about this task which, in the end will likely take about five minutes to schedule and then maybe an hour to accomplish. Not to mention the awful feelings of guilt and shame it brings up every time I think about it. Why am I so stuck about this?!?
Turns out, it’s human nature. We are hard-wired to make excuses. Psychologists categorize this type of thought as “self-handicapping.” The more anxious or ashamed you feel about something, the more likely your brain is to create barriers to accomplishing it. It creates a spiral effect of non-action. And we’ve all been there!
So, what can we do? I have three suggestions:
Ask Yourself, “Is This True?” - Just because a thought pops into your head does not make it objectively true. If your brain is saying “I’m too busy,” “I’ll never get this done” or “Tomorrow will be a better time to look at this” - push back. Is that really true?
Experiment With Thinking The Opposite - If you find yourself thinking “I’m too busy to accomplish this and I will never get it done,” try instead to think “This task is important to me and I will find the time to get it done.” Take charge of your inner voice!
Find People to Hold You Accountable - It is so much harder to put something off when you’ve put it out there in the world instead of keeping it inside. Like for me, now that I’ve written this blog post about scheduling my mammogram, you better believe I have an extra push to get it done!
If getting your estate planning done is on your list of things you’ve been avoiding and making excuses about, I encourage you to make an appointment with me. I will be that accountability partner and will work with you through whatever thoughts you’re having that are getting in the way of getting this crossed off of your list!
