“The importance of staying busy is a Protestant obsession that America inherited from Northern Europe and has since tuned to a fine art. The more hours you spend in the office, the more multitasking you do, the fewer vacations you take, the more professional you are, the more your social credibility increases in stock. You are a good, productive, and useful person if your diary is crammed for the foreseeable future.”
“Protestant Work Ethic” is the term often given to the propensity to work our tails off, the compulsive drive to accomplish, produce, and achieve, that, when not contained, can undermine our physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual health, not to mention its often ruinous impact on significant relationships.
Of course we know it’s not wise to be nose-to-the-grindstone busy. We know we need to come up for air rather than be immersed in work 24/7, but most of us also know that when it comes to work it’s not likely that we’ll change a whole lot. Given that verity, one might expect this reflection to urge resistance to the impulse to be constantly busy and instead encourage a more balanced lifestyle; my intent, however, is to speak a word not in defense of balance but of busyness.
Because the ideal of a balanced life is just not going to be a reality for most of us, why not embrace our workaholic tendency as a virtue. There will always be more to do than time in which to do it, but some of what makes over-work so unhealthy is not the amount of time we spend working, or the amount or work that needs to be done, rather it is the tension that comes with thinking/feeling that we shouldn’t be working so much at the same time that we’re busy working! Why not resist labeling our work routine negatively, and just roll up our sleeves, dive in, and enjoy the hell out of it! Who knows, this approach could result in productivity minus depletion.
It’s true that there’s a difference between being busy and being a workaholic, between a sometimes over the top work ethic, and an addiction, but with regard to the former, since most of us will be working/over working until we retire or die, we might as well befriend that reality, develop a positive attitude about it, and maybe even “whistle while we work!”
Attuned to Soul 