Hold On For A Second…

Our minds have been driving us left and right. And we, as primary drivers, are totally clueless regarding the place we’re headed.

Drivers! You’re doing a terrible job! Oh wait, where’s the steering gone?!

FONBB

I took 5 whole seconds to form this acronym. It means:-

Fear Of Not Being Busy

Or not busy enough yet. There’s more to do. More to do.

Many of us can’t stand boredom or get entirely empty. Devoid of any work to do. It’s a nasty feeling. It pokes us because it gives us the worthless feeling.

There’s a constant need to do something or the other.

When You Get Busy

When we find something or the other to get our teeth into, we’re happy. We’re okay.

Yes, it‘s important to stay busy. It is important to keep learning, producing and creating.

But I’m talking of the crazy and compulsive side of craziness. I’ll cite an example to make things clearer.

During my days of Xth Grade studies, I had a practice. A routine. It kept me going. And alongside, it ensured minimum time leakage.

A few weeks, things were going visibly good. But gradually, I lost track of WHY I was doing this.

After a point, I was plain “ticking-in-the-box.” The soul of the work died. Why was I tracking? To check for time leakages. Why was I following timings? To keep things organized up in the head.

But what happened? That I was busy the whole day. Finished one sitting. Take a short walk, register the timing in your notebook and get back to the next one.

I was nothing but a routine completion machine. There was no juice, productivity or creativity left inside the hollow structure.

But I took two months to realize that I was doing nothing worthwhile. My time was flowing out of my hands. And nothing worthy was being produced.

What’s that busy-ness and jam-packed rigid schedule‘s use?

Your Gas Pedal Broke Your Steering

Focus on being productive than busy.
-Tim Ferriss

☝️ This quote holds the crux of this article.

In the great momentum of the mind and our hectic schedules, we’ve lost direction.

We’re running faster and faster with our eyes shut. Are we sure of the direction?

Do I know where this run is going to take me? Do I know how far am I from the cliff ending? From the end where everything tumbles down.

There is a bunch of things we lose during great speed.

The Why

The first one is, our WHY. I tracked my time leakage by making myself busy and tracking time. Instead, I derived pleasure from the ‘busy’ feeling.

What had I started with? Is it still there? Or has it gone down in my priority list? Or worse, is it even there?

Integral Values

The second one, which is sort of close to the first one, is our integrity.

We lose all our values on which we stand. On which the base had to be built primarily. Instead, all focus gets concentrated on being busy and having a stuffed routine.

Overall, I have a relaxed schedule. But what can one do when he/she burdens himself/herself with unnecessary tasks?

We lose what’s important in all this daily self-created mental hum-drum. A compulsiveness.

More than getting things done right, we indulge in getting things plainly done. It’s this tick-in-the-box attitude which I’ve mentioned earlier.

The Fix

The fix is to slow down.

Right in the morning, my father and I were discussing the compulsiveness of working. Then, during the discussion, he said something.

“Are we for the routines or is the routine for us?” (followed by gentle laughter)

That was so right! Even the slightest thing that would disturb my timings would get me to worry.

I’ supposed to go for jogging around 7:10 A.M. But if I get stuck in some other work, my mind keeps bothering me. Then I adjust timings.

“I’ll do this instead of that during this-this time slot. Then I’ll shift that stuff to the afternoon time slot. But lunch needs to be quick for that. But even Mom is getting late today! Oh god. I better make things tight from tomorrow.”

I planned relentlessly. Even for the next day!

There needs to be a consistent effort to make it happen every day. But I don’t believe in tearing apart what’s important.

I’ll share another incident that’ll bring more clarity regarding this topic.

I was sitting on my study table while speeding through the pages of my notebook. Making long notes of Psychology lessons.

My Mom was cleaning up all the mess we’d created. She was tired, frustrated and exasperated of all the disorganization. But I sat there, watching her go from one room to the other getting things in place.

That’s when I shut my book down and got up to help. It was my duty to help my mother in the household work.

This is keeping integral values and direction safe in all that speed. The busy-ness makes us speedy and self-centered. We find nothing necessary other than our routine.

And then someday, even quality and the WHY drops out of the picture. You’ll be running around in circles with your routine.

Faster. Faster. Just to get to the same place from where you’d started.

Conclusion

“I have to publish once in 3 days.” — Race №1
“I have to cover so and so hours/topics of mathematics every day!” — Race №2

All these hurries create a mental race. A hurry-scurry. Unorganized. Hasty. Turbulent. Unproductive. Highly efficient (the useless version).

We have to ensure one thing. That we never ever lose sight of what’s important. Work is important. But values are more important.

I am following my routine to become a successful and efficient person. To fundamentally build a stronger me.

Then wouldn’t helping my Mom in her work or my brother in his projects do the same?

Shouldn’t I stop to see where I’m going? Building a strong character includes the power to detach. How good am I doing in detachment?

Am I able to let go when needed? Or am I the running the same blind and compulsive race the mind wants me to?

As far as sense of worth is considered, it can NEVER come from getting busier and doing more. If you’re feeling some kind of sense of worth, then it’s a fake one. It’s built on fake parameters.

I’ve seen that kind of self-worth tumble down a million times.

There is true joy in creating something fresh. In getting better. Not in the blind and compulsive race which the mind wants me to run. 😉

I’ve experienced it. But as usual, I flow away in the compulsive mind pattern. And forget to respect my experience.

An ending note

When I said, “there’s no need to do more” I didn’t mean to say we should stop learning.

My only message is to stay aware of the compulsiveness. Of the loss of direction.

That’s all.

If you liked this article and would like to stuff more such content in your psyche, check out my blog, Connecting Dots!

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Directionless Acceleration Is Dangerous 🤐 was originally published in The Ascent on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.