When someone asks you how you are, do you answer, “Busy.  Really busy.”?  If so, you may be working toward your Busyness Badge.  Listen to find out why busy is the new sick, and how constant busyness can have a negative impact on our lives.

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On Today’s Episode

Rhythm of Life – Finding Adventure on a Well-Traveled Road
Tune-up Tip – Gut Bacteria:  The Good, The Bad, The Ugly
Random Riffs – How Do You Like Your Peeps?
Feature Segment – Are You Earning Your Busyness Badge?

Rhythm of Life – Adventure on a Well-Traveled Road

Every day is an adventure, even when doing familiar things or traveling on a familiar road.  But do we see, notice, and appreciate the adventure in every day?

Look for the adventure even in the mundane.  You never know when or where you will find it.

Tune-up Tip – Gut Bacteria:  The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

We have about 100 trillion microbes in our gut.  Some beneficial; others not so much.  Increasing evidence shows that the bacteria in our gut affects our weight, behavior, thoughts, and mood.  We can combat that by controlling what we eat (listen to Episode 005 for more information on the effects of processed foods).

Stage a food revolution in your own life, and let those microbes work wonders for you rather than wreaking havoc.

Random Riffs – How Do You Like Your Peeps?

Peeps were a staple in our Easter basket, that spongy, yellow marshmallow candy shaped like baby chicks that came in a box wrapped in cellophane.  They’ve since expanded to a variety of colors, shapes and holiday themes.

Check out these resources for some obscure facts and uses for peeps.

Obscure facts
Washington Post Peeps Diorama

And tell us…. How do you like your peeps?

Feature Segment – Are You Earning Your Busyness Badge?

Anyone who’s been a Girl or Boy Scout knows that they have merit badges which you earn when you learn something and demonstrate proficiency.  For example, first aid, building a fire, camping.  You always wanted the most of anyone in the troop as it felt like you’d earned respect; you looked accomplished.

As adults, we are earning badges too.  Not ones that you sew on your uniform, but badges of “honor”.   Here are the badges many of us are earning:

Busyness
Insomnia
Sugar addict
Sedentary
Burnout
Mindless

The difference is these badges are not moving us forward, but rather creating negative benefits.  Busyness has become the norm; everyone has a badge.  But busyness leads to insomnia and burnout pretty quickly.

We talked in Episode 10 about the importance of sleep, but there are other health risks associated with busyness.  Articles by Dr. Suzanne Koven (Busy is the New Sick) and Dr. Richard Hallowell (How Can Being Busy Shorten My Life?) speak to the dangerous health effects of busyness.  Our rate of busyness is simply not sustainable.  We can’t keep speeding things up and increasing demand without consequences.  We equate busy with important, and important = indispensable.
Jon Jachimowicz talks about this in his Huffington Post article Being Busy As a Status Symbol.

What do we generally do to combat this busyness problem?  We try to be more efficient.  There’s merit in that, but when we buy ourselves time by becoming more efficient, what do we do?  We just pile more on.  And in our pursuit of more, we end up with less.

Less energy
Less creativity
Less happy
Less healthy

The only thing to show for it is a busyness badge.

In his book “Essentialism”,  Greg McKeown talks about the disciplined pursuit of less, and of getting the right things done.  In essence, less = more.

More energy
More creativity
More happiness
More healthy

Think about the impact on your life if you lived out what was truly important to you.  If you concentrated on doing less to create more.

If you know someone who is crazy busy, please share this post with them by clicking on the email or social media buttons.  If you'd like to share how you are combating busyness, please leave a comment.

For Those Who Want Further Study:  Additional resources are below as you continue this journey of less = more.

The ‘Busy' Trap
The Hidden Dangers of Busyness
Definition of busyness
The Busyness Bubble
Don’t Get Caught Up in the Busyness Bubble
The Busyness Dilemma
Danger of Busyness
Coping With Your Crazy Busy Life