#6: How BUSY Are You?

Are you busy? I know I am! But it's good to be busy. It keeps you doing things that will move you forward in life and you can also learn quite a bit from it, provided you're doing something beneficial. However, are you sooooo busy that you can't afford to even deal with the most important things in your life, such as your wealth and health? 

I find myself guilty of that on the health side. I knew I should exercise at least 3 times a week to stay fit since ages ago, but I didn't. I knew I should take good care of my own diet, but I didn't. You know why?" I'm busy! I spend long hours at work and sometime work over the weekends, I don't have time to exercise! I'm tired enough. But maybe I'll get to it soon, very soon." Sounds familiar? You'd probably hear many people saying it, or even yourself. 

Fundamentally, we know that we should really do something about it (in my case, it is going to gym 3 times a week). Yet we stay busy at work. We stay busy doing something else like watching the TV, shopping, eating out. Don't get me wrong though, if we love doing those things, we should continue to do so, but we should also deal with the other important things in our life. 

Just face it: we are lazy. We want to stay busy so that we can avoid things that we don't want to face, such as wealth and health management. This is exactly what Robert Kiyosaki was talking about in his book, "Rich Dad, Poor Dad". Deep down inside, he said, we know it's true that we're living in denial. After all, who wants to break the comfortable habit and do something you do not have not much knowledge about? It's just like learning how to walk all over again. Fall down, stand back up, fall down again - it's just too much work. 

Here are the common reactions to the following 2 subjects:

1) Personal investment - I have my money in the savings account. Investing is too troublesome and it's too 'risky'. 

2) Exercise - Too much trouble, I want to enjoy life. Besides, I'm young so I can afford to procrastinate for a few more years! 

Now that you read about this and understand the classic paradigm most of us have, it's time to break the paradigm and do something about the important things you've been putting off for a long time. Let your desire for a better life drive you. Let your dream steer yourself out of the laziness zone. You can stay busy and do what you love to do, while at the same time allocate some time to deal with the important things like taking good care of your money and body. Robert Kiyosaki suggested, "be a little greedy". Not greedy in bad terms, not that. It's being a little greedy in the sense of yearning for exciting things and better quality in life. Keep that desire under control and you'll break free from the trap of "lazibusiness". 

As for myself, I'll be moving to a new apartment with fitness center, so I won't have the excuse of not going to gym because it's too far away or it's too expensive. Beginning from July 1 (specified time), I'll go to gym 3 times per week (clear goal) - no more (be realistic), no less (be consistent). 

Now, if you're thinking about personal investment, start doing that by visiting my post on 401k/IRA. If you're thinking about staying healthy, I like this Fitness 101 article. If you're thinking about learning a totally new subject, go to the bookstore and get a couple of books on that subject (or visit Amazon.com - my personal favorite for getting cheaper books). Hope it helps!

Takeaways:

1) Busy = Lazy and avoiding important things you don't want to face

2) Let your desire for a better life drive you to success

3) Start doing something about it TODAY!

P.S.:  I've added the "Insights of the Day" banner on the top of the blog. Click on it and subscribe for a free daily motivational quote. It really helps!

(The awesome picture is created by * Toshio * from Flickr)