You were likely trained to be busy, and to believe that busy meant you were good.
Find more work to do in class if you finish early, rather than being able to leave before the bell rings.
Make sure you have enough after-school activities to make you appealing to colleges.
There’s always sidework at the restaurant or emails to check for the office job.
Clock in and be there whether there are important tasks to complete or not. Hide that browser tab with Reddit because if you’re not working, you’ll get in trouble.
Busy=good.
Busy=productive.
Busy=safe.
Busy=paid.
Unless you have your own business, which means you are NOT getting paid to be busy. You are getting paid only when you actually SELL something.
Productivity means NOTHING as a business owner if the actions you are completing do not result directly in more sales.
So, are you staying busy? Are you super duper productive? Do you have a to-do list a mile long? Are you just hanging out in the 8 of Pentacles fidgeting with widgets?
Throw it out.
Your job as a business owner is to do three things:
- Attract folks to your business
- Sell them stuff
- Give them the stuff you sold them
That’s it. That’s the job. Anything else is busywork. Anything else is productivity for the sake of filling the gaping maw of low self-worth instilled by an educational and social system that values your abilities as a cog rather than a visionary.
What might be possible for you if you focused solely on those three areas? If you left the website imperfect, the IG photo unfiltered, the to-do list unchecked, and just sold more things to more people who need your help?
What could you do with the FREE TIME that creates?
How would your life FEEL without the crush of productivity at all costs?
Crack open possibility and get to work, my friend—the imperfect, messy work that helps you help people!