One of the best parts of working for Weaving Influence is being surrounded by some of the best and deepest thinkers in leadership today. I’m regularly inspired by our clients to try new things, develop new ways of thinking, and keep learning.

I’m often amazed at how the blog I need to read will be posted by a client right when I need it. That happened just two weeks ago with a really spectacular series on Resistance by Mark Miller. If you haven’t read it yet, head over now to check out all three parts.

We all face resistance in our lives—and truthfully, I thought I was doing a pretty good job resisting it! I started running again and was heading outside 6 mornings a week. I’d been doing that since July, but I was starting to take an extra rest day or eat junk that made me sluggish in my next run. Mark’s blog helped me realize every time I sat on the couch instead of lacing up my shoes, I was letting resistance win. So now, when I hear the siren call of the sofa or those little mello-crème pumpkins, I repeat a mantra to myself: “If you eat the junk or choose the couch, resistance wins.” It’s kept me running even as Hurricane Joaquin dumped days of rain on us here in North Carolina. I’m in an active battle with resistance on this front and I thank Mark for preparing me to win.

His blog got me thinking about how resistance pops up in other parts of my life. I consider myself pretty self-disciplined when it comes to my work, but when I took a deeper look, I realized I struggle with resistance’s twin sister—busyness. I am busy from the time I wake up until the time I go to bed each night. Why are we all so busy, busy, busy? Are we doing more than our parents did? Are we just that important? Here are some of my thoughts about busyness:

• I don’t want to fail, so I’m always saying ‘yes’ to new tasks and responsibilities at work and home. I think, deep down, I will be able to make everyone happy if I do everything.
• I’m a control freak. If I delegate, I lose some control—but if I don’t, that hamster wheel of busyness just keeps spinning faster.
• And a really important factor for me—I need a sense of urgency in my life. I worked in television news for 20 years. I was always racing to meet multiple daily deadlines. Basically, I was an adrenaline junkie who’s afraid of heights. Where do I get my fix now? I create artificial busyness.

I understand that the busyness is not making me more productive or happier. It’s just causing more and more stress. My goal is to slow the hamster wheel down and identify ways I can cut out the busyness in my life and create more capacity and peace.

Here are some of the things I’m trying to do to defeat busyness everyday:

• Schedule and honor time to do things that matter to me. I’m trying the Miracle Morning approach and it’s helping. My runs are built into my morning time.
• Delegate. I haven’t done this as quickly or as effectively as I would like, but I’m making progress.
• Identify the 20% of work that delivers 80% of results—and doing those things, delegating the other tasks, or in some cases letting them slide because they aren’t important anyway.
• Focus on one thing at a time instead of multi-tasking.
• Put my phone down more often.

As a friend of mine likes to say, it’s a work in progress. I’m a work in progress, but I have my sights set on putting resistance and busyness in their place.

Tell me something! How are you fighting resistance and busyness?

Image credit: johnhain

Christy Kirk

Christy Kirk, Vice President of Client Services, is a social media strategist, writer, and former television journalist, who’s done everything from launch a news department to create social content and strategy for Fortune 500 companies and brands including Pampers Diapers, Pantene, Luvs Diapers and Carlson Rezidor Hotels. Now, Christy manages marketing projects for Weaving Influence, with an emphasis on social media marketing. She is also a wife and mother of three children, one dog, and one cat. She loves reading, baking, running, hiking and exploring new places.