Ask any adult how work is going and the answer you will get is “busy”. That is their way of saying work is good. This implies that being busy is a good thing.
How much junk you can cram into one day has become the new normal. That’s why you need your smart phone right? You’ve got so much stuff to do you must rely on your digital calendar to make it through the day. Don’t forget to check your email every hour people are counting on you. You are important.
Ask any middle class American how life is going and you will get some generic answer that makes a joke out of how bland, boring or busy life is. “Livin’ the dream”, “same old same old”, ” super busy, work is crazy” Oh, but you and your family get to go on vacation at the end of the month! You can only go for 6 days because your job wouldn’t approve the 7th. Its the busy season so you under stand. You wouldn’t want to let your coworkers down anyway.
This is the American way. Save a little money to hopefully retire by 70 just to live the rest of your life fighting off diseases created by your poor life style choices for the last half century. You were too busy to exercise, too busy to make breakfast, too busy to take the extra day off from work.
I call bullshit, everyone has time for what they make time for.
What are we all so busy doing?
Honestly, I this is an extremely complex question, one that can’t be answered in a blog post, but we can try.
From what I’ve found, the average American works 45-50 hours per week. Well, that sounds normal you might say! That’s hardly over-full time.
I say who the F#$% gets to decide how many minutes of my life I have to donate working for someone who decides how much money my work is worth.
I think most of us give up our freedom for a stable pay check. It’s almost like an addiction. You are addicted to the steady flow of money. Isn’t that the American dream that everyone talks about? Good job security with hopeful retirement by 65. And who the hell made up that number? 65
40 year is certainly not how long it takes to save up enough money to retire. I think it might be the age where most people are no longer at peak productivity. That makes sense though, live and die for your employer until you reach an age where they no longer benefit from you anymore. They have sucked you dry, but they give you three weeks vacation! (some people don’t even use all three weeks, they would rather have the cash). To me, that sounds like a sad sad existence.
Here is my simple method to avoid the rat race.
Analyze your spending. Warren Buffet drives a used car. That probably means you should be riding a banana bike to work.
Next, reflect on what you are so damn scared of. A lot of people are scared of being broke. I think the only way to let go of that fear is to live it. Live broke for a week. Don’t spend any money. Eat some of the food you already have in your pantry. I bet you won’t die. You will probably come out the other side a better person and on your way to escaping the American Nightmare.
People will always come up with excuses for why they are so busy. I guess they are right, I just don’t get it.
I would like to remind them that my life is Un-Busy by design. Not by chance.
Strive to do less in life. Make sure the stuff you do is awesome.
So why are you so damn busy?
