Toxic Busy Culture
Advice for your Bridal Business on How to Survive a Recession
Do you know anyone in your life that every time you talk to them, they're so overwhelmed by being
so busy, their to-do list is endless?
Today, we are going to talk about how busy culture can be toxic. We're busy with business, trying
to reach some of those goals, work through a to-do list, and just settle into 2023.
Let's dive in.
Internal
There are two types of toxic busy culture. The first type is often internal.
This is where you have your internal conversation every day with yourself, telling yourself all day long that you're so busy, so much so that even when you are not busy, you're so used to being in a state of stress that you feel this productivity anxiety all the time. So you create this sense of busyness for yourself.
This mindset increases your stress levels, it can affect relationships both at work and in your personal life when you're just constantly living in a state of busyness.
External
The second type of toxic busyness is external. This one's a little bit tougher of a conversation and
of a concept. The external type of toxic busyness, where people around you are constantly
pushing onto you, that you are so busy.
Here is an example of that where the conversation goes, “I know you have a million things going on. I've been in your shoes. I know it's too much to handle. You're being pulled in a million directions. Let me take things off your plate.” Or, our favorite is, "I know you've been so busy, I haven't heard from you.”
We normally have 47 things going on in a day, and we're comfortable in the state of busyness. The challenge becomes when we tell ourselves that we wouldn't have it any other way. And when we start to push off on other people, it becomes really toxic.
Everyone's version of busyness is different. Each person has a unique threshold for work and stress. Everyone's lifestyle looks different. Some have kids, some have dogs, some have multiple businesses, some are married, and some aren't. Some live in a city, some don't. You know, there's a much larger house to take care of than someone's apartment. I mean, everybody's life looks different and everyone's version of what they can handle is different.
Overwhelm
There are absolutely times when schedules and to-do lists are overwhelming. That does happen, and
that's okay, but when someone isn't responding to you, it's not because they can't handle their
schedule. It may be because you're just not a priority.
Maybe they don't wanna respond, maybe they don't want to engage in the conversation with you so they just simply choose not to respond. Maybe someone enjoys juggling the 5 million things on their to-do list and because you don't want your to-do lists like that doesn't mean they can't handle the next thing you throw at them. Let the person that you're pushing off on decide what they can and cannot handle. Maybe it doesn't feel so crazy to them.
I know there's always someone in your life where you look at them and you're like, I do not know how you do what you do, because you couldn't possibly imagine managing all the things that they manage. Maybe they have things in place that they can manage. Maybe they have people in place to manage the millions of things that go on in their life. Everyone's life is different. Everyone's threshold is different.
Reflect
We preach (& try to practice) a lot of self-care, and feel this industry needs it.
Next time you connect with someone in your community, maybe another entrepreneur, maybe a friend, maybe a family member, next time you talk about work stress, your to-do list, or the busyness of a day, take a moment just to reflect.
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