Skip to content

Quotes about Being Busy

    “Are you stressed?  Are you so busy getting to the future that the present is reduced to a means of getting there?  Stress is caused by being ‘here’ but wanting to be ‘there,’ or being in the present but wanting to be in the future.  It’s a split that tears you apart inside.  To create and live with such an inner split is insane.  The fact that everyone else is doing it doesn’t make it any less insane.  If you have to, you can move fast, work fast, or even run, without projecting yourself into the future and without resisting the present.  As you move, work, run — do it totally.  Enjoy the flow of energy, the high energy of that moment.  Now you are no longer stressed, no longer splitting yourself in two.  Just moving, running, working—and enjoying it.  Or you can drop the whole thing and sit on a park bench.  But when you do, watch your mind.  It may say: ‘You should be working.  You are wasting time.’ Observe the mind.  Smile at it.” ~ Eckhart Tolle, The Power of Now (Page 84)

      “We run during the daytime and we run during our sleep.  We do not know how to stop.  Our practice is first of all to stop, then to relax, to calm down and to concentrate.  When we can do this, then we are in the here and now.  Then we become solid.  And when we are solid, we can look around.  We can look deeply into the present moment, we can look deeply into our true nature, and we can discover the ultimate dimension.” ~ Thich Nhat Hanh, No Death, No Fear

        “Simple truth:  fast and busy are a choice.  We choose to go fast and be busy because we think it’ll get us what we want.  All too often, it doesn’t.  Fast and busy makes life brittle.  It makes us feel like every inch of space in life is locked in and there’s no room to move.  Instead of unlocking productivity and potential, it throttles both.  It deludes us into feeling like we’re getting more done faster, but in reality, we could get the same done in the same or less time with more grace by dialing it back, not forward.  In the end, we’re left feeling dissatisfied and helpless to extract ourselves from the process.  Except we’re not.  It’s all an illusion.” ~ Jonathan Fields, How To Live A Good Life

          “Simplifying the externals allows us to cultivate a rich inner and outer life.  A cluttered existence may keep us busy, but busyness doesn’t mean that we are fully engaged in what we are going.  Usually, just the opposite, we feel busy because we are neurotically active at things that don’t matter much in the long run.  It does little good to be successful in a business that requires sixty hours of work a week, while the simple pleasures of home life are neglected.  A complicated person can simplify life and in that simplicity find a sharp articulation of values.  Complicated lives often do the opposite: they show to what extent the person is lost in the busyness of the world.”

          Thomas Moore, Original Self | ★ Featured on this book list.

            “Often we’re rushing to get somewhere, trying to make progress towards a goal, moving, moving. But where are we going? Will we be happier when we get there? Is that place better than where we already are? I’ve found that no, it’s not any better. Where we already are is just as great. This moment is just as good as wherever we’re rushing off to. We’ve already arrived. So I smile, and appreciate the moment, and this makes the current task not a stepping stone to something better, but something great in and of itself.” ~ Leo Babauta, Zen Habits

              “The first step in becoming a more peaceful person is to have the humility to admit that, in most cases, you’re creating your own emergencies. Life will usually go on if things don’t go according to plan.” ~ Richard Carlson, Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff

                “Much of our anxiety and inner struggle stems from our busy, overactive minds always needing something to entertain them, something to focus on, and always wondering, ‘what’s next?'” ~ Richard Carlson, Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff

                  “We live our lives as if they were one big emergency! We often rush around looking busy, trying to solve problems, but in reality, we are often compounding them.” ~ Richard Carlson, Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff