Dorie Clark

And so we become busy as a way so that we don't even have to ask the question.

Now, there's a third reason, and I'll admit it's one that I know well, personally, and that is that sometimes we use busyness as a way to numb ourselves out.

I've experienced that.

My boy Gideon, he died in 2013.

I had had him for 17 years, and he was my best friend.

And after he died, I'll be honest, I didn't want to be home because I knew that he wouldn't be there.

And so for two years, my life basically was an Uber to an airport to a hotel and back again, because I just really didn't want to face that.

For a lot of us, there are things we sometimes don't want to face.

What we're really looking for with work is an anesthetic.

And as I like to say, work is better than crack.

So if you're choosing, not the worst.

But the truth is, it's also not a sustainable solution.

For many of us, we get trapped in the pattern.

of busyness, of overwork.

It's hard sometimes even to remember what it was like before.

Oftentimes, in our mind's eye, when we think of busyness, what we think of is triumphant success and the world at your fingertips.

The truth is, more often, it looks like loneliness.

It looks like frustration.

It looks like having

a life that's not really in your full control.