always busy

Most of the working firefighters I know are prohibitively active. They’ve got second and third jobs, families, extracurriculars like being involved in the union, or hobbies like rock climbing that potentially border on obsession.

Society rewards this behavior.

It’s cool to have a calendar so packed you can barely breathe. It means your life is full, right? You’re doing it right if you’re serving the master of busyness like everyone else.

But can I ask you a question?

What are you running from?

Who would you be if you stopped packing your schedule and slowed down a little? Would that be uncomfortable? Why?

What are you avoiding that only shows up in the stillness or the silence?

The Western cultural phenomenon of busyness serves a dual purpose: it creates meaning, but it also distracts us from the truths that tend to surface when we have time to think and time alone with ourselves.

The adrenaline high that comes from a packed schedule is one hell of an attention grabber. It keeps your body and mind occupied. But it also distorts your sense of time.

Rushing from one activity to the next burns through the clock and trains you to experience urgency as normal. Eventually, being busy doesn't feel like something you're doing. It feels like who you are and something you’re REQUIRED to perform.  

So, what’s the cost of a distracted life?

There’s no reward system that says you have to earn rest. Rest and reflection are regenerative processes. They aren’t weaknesses, luxuries, or prizes you get after you've suffered enough.

If you have chronic insomnia or relentless fatigue, it may be worth asking whether rest has felt unsafe for a while or whether you've simply devalued it. Especially if you’re someone who says things like, “I’ll rest when I’m dead.”

Rest is more helpful to the living than the dead, by the way.

Make friends with rest again. Your life is inherently meaningful whether you work that extra shift or not. Nobody but you is keeping score of how hard you can grind, how many hours you can stack, or how little sleep you can function on.

You may say, “I don’t know how to rest. I have ADHD.”

Okay. Then practice. The best way to get good at something is to practice it—even for 10 minutes a day. For those 10 minutes, just be.

You don't need to go anywhere. You don't need to accomplish anything. You don't need to be useful to anyone.

Just exist for 10 minutes a day and see what happens.

It might feel weird at first. You may discover that sitting still with yourself is considerably less comfortable than running yourself into the ground. Good. That discomfort is part of the practice.

Because somewhere in that space, you’re beginning to regain mastery over yourself. You’re experimenting with what it feels like to stop serving the false idol of busyness so completely.

And once you stop running long enough to hear yourself think, who knows what you might find.

If you want more mental performance tools you can actually use on the job and in the rest of your life, subscribe to our YouTube channel. You’ll find practical conversations about the mental side of the fire service without the usual feel-good bullshit.