How many times have you been asked this week, “How are you?” And responded “OMG, so busy!”

Every day strangers down the street stop me in my tracks to comment how Busy I must be, or how full my hands are with twins to care for. Add huge business ambitions and a heavy study load and you can see why I might be considered ‘busy’. These days I prefer to call my life ‘full’. Here’s why.

‘Busy’ has become a badge of honour.

If you’re not busy the somehow you’re failing, or not trying hard enough at life. Busyness is the reason why we no longer arrange meet ups with friends in person, why we don’t exercise, why we’ve never taken the leap and started our dream job, why we’ve never travelled overseas or [insert yours here!]

Here’s the kicker – all the big, time-consuming things that we’ve always wanted to do, but never had the ‘time’ to do are also the most important. We’re so busy being busy, that we’ve stopped living!

We get so wrapped up in the day-to-day routine that we can lose sight of our own big picture vision. The wealth of information available at our fingertips and headlines like ’10 things you must do right now otherwise you’re a bad mum’ just makes things worse. We get caught up in comparison feeling less worthy because we didn’t use cloth nappies, dress our babies in bamboo or feed them exclusively organic food. My 1 year old twins recently picked up and chewed on dry dog poop. Do I feel like a bad mum? No. Did I freak out and call the ambulance? No. Shit happens (no pun intended!)

My point is, by obsessing over the mundane stuff and putting ridiculous pressure on ourselves we are making ourselves appear ‘busier’ than we truly are. Even if you don’t have kids, I’m sure you can think of one area of your life where you’re overdoing it!

What if I told you that you’re not actually busy, but overwhelmed?

All of our ‘small moments’ in the day are filled with the consumption of information from one source or another. Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat all shout notifications at you 24/7 x 365. We have no time to process our experiences anymore, and with so much chatter going on, our brains are simply overwhelmed.

What to do about ‘busyness’

Firstly, get good at time-management! Mark out blocks of time in your calendar for everything you need to do and then stick to it. Getting your plans out of your head and into a diary or digital calendar will reduce your stress trying to remember everything.

Once you’ve got your calendar sorted out, put aside time for Social Media. Its not going anywhere, quitting Facebook would make you a pariah so just accept it as part of your life and move on. Carve out 1/2 an hour after the kids are in bed (or some other time that suits you) and do not exceed that time or check it at any other time of day.

You can’t help anyone else if your own cup is empty. So add in something for yourself. Not just to reduce stress, but to fill you up, so that you can give from the overflow without losing yourself.

Stop making excuses!

How many times have you told yourself that you are just too busy to cook healthy foods or exercise? I’m sorry, but thats a myth. Nothing in life works (and I mean nothing!) if you do not have your Health first.

So Make Time. 

If you have time to watch TV or Netflix, you have time for cooking and exercise. If you have time for social media, you have time for cooking and exercise. You have time.

Need some help MAKING time for your health? Thats what I do as your health coach. I’m here to support you to make these changes as painlessly as possible.

Changing old habits is hard, but when you realise those big dreams and your body is in good health? Your effort is worth it.

The post Stop Making ‘busy’ an excuse to sacrifice your health appeared first on Kirsty Cole.