Have you noticed how busy people are today? It’s almost as if busyness is perceived as success… As if being busy was the same as getting things done.

I think in today’s world, we tend to glorify busyness. Just look around you. Think about how many times a day you hear others say, “Gosh, I’m so busy today!” or “Wow, what a busy week!” How many times a day do you feel like you’re running around in circles, jumping from one task to another, all the while, taking phone calls, texting, and answering emails?

We teach our kids to be busy, between homework and soccer and baseball and piano lessons and dance and gymnastics and church and chores. You hand them a Pop Tart and rush them out the door early in the morning to take them to school, and then pick them up after school and race from one activity to the next, and picking up dinner from a drive-thru somewhere in there. By the time you get home in the evening, everyone is wiped out and grouchy, and it’s time for bed. (Sleep, wake up, repeat.)

We are busy at work and busy at home. We are busy in the car while driving, busy at the dinner table, and we’re even busy while we’re on the toilet! We are busy 24/7.

What does it feel like to be busy? Your heart is beating fast, you may be short of breath, and you feel like you just can’t move fast enough. You’re trying to keep up with your to-do list that seems to be growing faster than you’re marking things off. You’re working 60 hours a week just so you don’t get any further behind than you already are.

There’s something I learned many years ago, and I’m telling you, I live by this truth. That is, you do not get paid for the time you put in, but for the results you produce. When you produce results, you raise your value, which means you raise your pay.

But it seems like most people today are so busy, we aren’t getting anything done. We are so busy, we aren’t producing results. And if we’re not producing results – at home, at school, at work, at church – we’re wasting time, energy, and money. Busyness produces stress, burnout, no fun, poor relationships, and poor health. We can be busy, or we can be productive. One produces results, and one produces excuses. (When’s the last time you heard – or even said – “I can’t, I’m busy”?)

It’s so easy to fill hours with non-productive things. It’s easy to over-complicate things and create more work for ourselves.

That’s why it’s so important to identify and eliminate the nonsense things on your list. What is on your to-do list that is not benefiting you, your business, your career, your health, or your family? What unnecessary steps can you eliminate from your processes in order to streamline and simplify? What distractions are in your life that cause your focus to be scattered? All of these things lead to busyness, not productivity.

This is so NOT just about making more money, though that is part of it. This is about eliminating stress, having more fun, setting the right example for your children, protecting your health, and accomplishing your goals.

It’s easy to get into a rut of busyness and to just stop thinking about what we’re doing and whether or not we’re producing results. But today, let’s stop and check that out. Do not go mindlessly through your day today. Instead, pay attention to what you’re doing and look at the results you’re getting. The results will tell you where your focus should be!

The majority of the population is running around like a chicken with its head cut off, always doing something, but not producing consistent results. But you are not supposed to be one of them. How do I know that? Because you are reading this email right now. You are reading this because it’s time for you to step up and take control of your time.

When you do this, you will make more money, have less stress, have more time to spend with your friends and family, and finally be able to accomplish the goals that you have continued to put off because you’ve just been too busy to do anything about them. My friend, it’s time to stop the glorification of “busy”, and start producing results!

Who do you know that needs to read this today? Go ahead and pass this link along to your friends, family, and co-workers, or even print it out for them. Can you imagine if your entire family or company was focused on producing results instead of just being busy all the time? What a different environment that would be!

Be sure to mark your calendar for our nationally syndicated radio show every Sunday night at 9 pm ET/8 pm CT as we discuss the latest current events relating to your money, children, family, and professional life!

In great faith,

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