Busy Doer
You are what I call a Busy Doer and although you like being busy and take pride in the fact you get A LOT done, you may be busy working on tasks that aren’t fulfilling you.
The problem most Busy Doers have is that their busyness is actually a form of distraction to keep them from thinking about how unfulfilled they are. And when they have any downtime, it feels uncomfortable because that’s when they start thinking thoughts about how they wish they could do something else. So to stop those thoughts, they get back to being busy!
So that is the fulfillment struggle Busy Doers face… Could it be that you are suppressing your heart’s desires by being too busy?
Read on to see if you are playing the empty nester role of a Busy Doer…
As a Busy Doer, it’s time to do a gut check! After reading this description, ask yourself whether your busyness is masking a desire to find more purpose in your life. Are you checking off your To Dos for the adrenaline rush it gives you or are you finding real meaning in your day-to-day tasks?
A Busy Doer takes specific action and makes progress on her daily task lists—crossing off each item with a feeling of pride and accomplishment. From the outside, she looks like she has it all together, and she might even have convinced herself that she's passionate because, after all, she IS doing A LOT.
She likely works outside the home, with a great job and probably a big title to go along with it. She always gets amazing performance reviews and high praise from colleagues. She values the "hustle" mindset and believes working hard is a must to get ahead.
If she was (or still is) a stay-at-home mom, she was likely very involved in her children's school, running the PTA, or in charge of at least one neighborhood committee. She is probably very social, always offering to host or help with parties, and if she's not scheduling her family's weekend activities, she's cleaning her house or weeding the garden.
No matter the job, the Busy Doer is always out and about, running errands, and getting stuff done.
But while she is busy doing, doing, doing, and crossing off all of her tasks on her list, she has probably had the thought cross her mind that NONE of them have anything to do with her deep desires, what she dreams of, and what she hopes to accomplish in her life.
And she might not even know what she really wants because her mind has been too preoccupied to think of anything but her overflowing To-do list.
But here's the thing... She knows in her gut, that most of what she is doing on her list is not filling HER SOUL'S CUP.
If this is resonating with you, you've likely been so busy that you've not even realized this problem until now because you've been so focused on trying to make everyone else happy. (kids, spouse, boss, etc.)
At her core, the Busy Doer's productivity comes from needing to please, needing to feel accomplished, needing to be enough, and needing to prove her worth in some way.
So she spends her days trying to make her parents, her husband, her kids, and her boss proud of what she's done, but once she does her gut check, she realizes that deep inside there is a gnawing lack of fulfillment.
Her list drives her, but she feels tired and unmotivated and that's because she's not focusing on the RIGHT things that will make her happy, deep in her soul.
The wonderful lesson here is that if you are a Busy Doer, you now recognize that your passion level is probably artificially high and that explains why you're feeling the way you do. Awareness is the first step!
The next step will be the hard part... because it's the opposite of how you've been operating... You need to stop your MINDLESS DOING! And start DREAMING about what you really want.
Do you want to go to Uganda and watch the Mountain Gorillas? Put it on your list!!! Do you want to buy a beach house overlooking the ocean where you hear the waves rolling on the sand every morning? Put it on your list!!!
If you need ideas and get inspired by hearing other people's ideas, you may want to tune into my podcast, "Living Your Sparked Second Half," where I highlight stories of women who are living their second half of life to the fullest, often with newfound passions discovered later in life.
Click the link below to check out my latest episodes. 👇
