5 Truths Overly Busy People Want to Tell You but Never Will

We admire busy people for keeping on top of everything, but there may be something they’re not telling us.

We all like to be busy. It keeps us from laziness and boredom and provides us with more opportunities for success and satisfaction. Everyone has busy people in their life – we all know someone who is constantly busy.

It’s that one person who seems to be balancing the world on their shoulders with relative ease. Yet, this person may be constantly busy for other reasons. Although business is generally quite good for us, there are some who try to keep themselves busy as a distraction.

Constantly busy people don’t want us to know what is actually going on, so they distract us and themselves by managing several projects at once. It makes us admire them and not ask what is really going on.

Busy people may not want us to know what is really going on, so there are a few truths they just won’t tell you.

1. Something has happened they’re not ready to deal with

We are all guilty of burying ourselves in work when there is something has just happened. Eventually, we carve out time to deal with it so that our lives return to equilibrium.

This is not always the case with constantly busy people. They actively ensure their lives are skewed towards more work and less personal time to avoid the problem.

Those who are always busy may be making themselves so so that they don’t have to face what they’re not dealing with. It is difficult to know whether the problem occurred recently or a while ago unless you have known the person for a long time.

You may have noticed a sudden change in behavior, or they may have always been busy, but it could be a mechanism to distract themselves from the problem.

2. They don’t have fulfilling social lives

People who don’t gain much fulfillment in their social lives will seek it in other areas of their lives. This usually comes in a work paradigm where we are praised for hard work and dedication.

Busy people, therefore, gain fulfillment in work where they are unable to get it elsewhere. It may be that they find it difficult to make friends, or are naturally introverted, or that their main social connections are at work. This means that busy people keep busy simply because they are lonely.

3. There are ongoing problems in their personal lives

When going through hard times, people handle things in different ways. Some people lose control and become reckless. Others push themselves harder in work to distract themselves from the problem.

This will most likely manifest as a sudden change in a person. Where they may previously have been good at balancing their work and personal lives, they may now be only focusing on their work lives.

It is a distraction technique and may subside or get worse as the problems go on. This is slightly different from being unable to face something that has already happened. The quality of their work may slip as they try to distract themselves whilst also trying to deal with a difficult problem.

4. They feel uncomfortable doing nothing

There are a number of reasons why people are uncomfortable in inaction. Some people have a chronic fear of doing nothing and become addicted to being busy.

Busy is a drug that a lot of people are addicted to.
-Rob Bell

Their identity is tied up in their successes and business, meaning they can’t take time for themselves to simply do nothing. They find themselves pacing and agitated if they are forced to do nothing, or have nothing to do.

When your identity is tied up in your success, this can lead to a fear of failure, which exacerbates the need to be busy.  It is a constant cycle that can only be remedied by finding comfort in doing nothing.

5. They’re afraid of being ordinary

Sometimes people keep themselves busy simply because they are afraid of being ordinary. They want to stand out, they have big dreams of being successful and are willing to do whatever it takes to get there. They make sacrifices in their personal lives to get where they want to be in their careers, and this is what makes them appear to be constantly busy.

Busy people will, therefore, not have as well established personal relationships, which can be detrimental in the long run.  However, sometimes, a goal is much stronger and more motivating than having personal relationships.

Being busy is not necessarily a bad thing. It helps us to advance our careers and produces more satisfaction and accomplishments. However, there are times when being busy is a sign that something is wrong.

When something is wrong, we may not want people to know. We won’t open up about the problems in our personal lives in order to hide them. It may not only be work we keep ourselves busy with, however.

Busy people may be throwing themselves into family and childcare, but if their efforts seem excessive, it may be the indicator of a deeper truth they don’t want to tell. Everyone needs comfort in inaction at times, it’s a part of being human.

References:

1. https://psychcentral.com/
2. https://www.psychologytoday.com/