By Elizabeth Herman | Posted: February 24, 2020
How do you react to other people’s expectations for you to do more and more? Demands on our time can become intense when others have expectations of us. But how we react to such pressure makes a big difference.
We can look at the pressure to be busy and say, “Thanks for your interest and esteem for my skills and contributions.” Or we can feel put upon, used, and overwhelmed and say, “Why don’t you let me do nothing? When will you pay me or give me a break? This job is too demanding,” or “Oh, I’m so tired of working all of the time. Let’s take a second vacation ASAP!” These reactions could result in losing clients or jobs, or becoming irrelevant to other people.
Times when you’re not busy can remind you of the value of being in demand. When your life is empty of tasks to complete for others, it can seem as though you're invisible. It hurts when no one seems to appreciate what you might have to offer them. Everyone has skills, talents, and potential, but not everyone has an outlet that puts them to good use.
At the same time, if your friend’s phone is ringing off the hook constantly, they may have some connection or key to appealing to others that you haven’t yet found. Your friend has a productive way to contribute to the world, and others need and value their qualities enough to keep them active and involved. Most of us want to feel similarly valued.
5 steps for reacting productively to pressure to be busy
1. Smile
A smile relaxes the muscles in your face. As soon as you smile, tension flows out of your jaw, your cheeks, your shoulders, and your neck. As Rhett Power states, “Your body language has been shown to have a real effect on your brain's outlook. So, smile and adopt a power pose. Soon, the feeling will be real.” By relieving and relaxing your own physical structures that carry the most stress, the pressure to be busy will be much easier to handle.
2. Look beyond mundane tasks
Piling up to do lists and busy work can keep your mind full of anxiety about too much work and too little energy and time. But with a bigger picture that’s beyond your mundane routine, you can see a whole world of change rising like the sun on your horizon. As Jeff Boss states, “When you view a deliverable as a means to an end rather than the end itself, you see there’s wriggle room to learn, grow and improve. More so, you see a road ahead full of opportunities rather than a dead end.”
3. Find momentary joy
Your moments of joy and happiness will fuel your success, not the other way around. “If we focus on our mental, physical, and spiritual health and well-being, the type of success we actually want will naturally follow,” states Susanna Newsonen. If you want to stay busy and accomplish a lot, the first and best move is to make yourself gleeful, delighted, and beaming with satisfaction. The opposite feelings will only stifle your productivity and stop you from overcoming the pressure to be busy.
4. Express gratitude
Thankfulness can help you embrace your real motivations to stay busy. People pressuring you to do more and more will cause you less stress when you express your grateful feelings towards them. Counting your blessings can help you focus on your resources for contributing to others, and will allow you to manifest positive change without overwhelming yourself with unnecessary hard work. With gratitude, your work becomes smarter, not harder.
5. Surrender
Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar states, “Surrender does not mean running away from responsibilities; it’s a sense of assurance in you that yes, things are going to be well.” When you’re so busy that you start to want out of your position, you can give up that desire and instead keep working without attachment to the outcome. Realizing that you can only do your best, that fulfilling your responsibilities will be for the best, and that your frustration will transform into clarity and love once you relinquish your need to escape, is the kind of surrender that will free you. You’re not defeated, but you’re free of the need to stop working, and you’re ready to draw on the powerful forces that support you, rather than relying only on yourself.
These 5 steps should help in your struggles with pressure and tension over your jam-packed lifestyle. For more techniques that should help, find a Happiness Program or Sahaj Samadhi Meditation course near you. Until then, these few, simple ideas for remaining active as well as relaxed can keep you busy but not overwhelmed.
Elizabeth Herman writes, offers writing support to clients, teaches, and volunteers for a better world. She has a PhD in Rhetoric, Composition and Literature. Find her on Facebook or Twitter.
