Risky Busyness

Bob Buford’s book – Halftime, is the most mentioned book on this blog. This is because it is the book that has influenced me the most so far in my forties. There is a chapter in there that talks about identifying your one thing. When we see our purpose as clearly as the inscription on a tomb stone then life becomes more meaningful. A sense of purposeful urgency to be all we were created to be kicks in. At that point we stop existing and start living.

Bob’s one thing was 1×100. That was what was in his box. He wanted his life to count one hundred times in impacting the lives of high impact leaders. This reminds me of the program ‘Omo Pick a Box’ back in the day. I’m certain my agemates here can recall that program. We didn’t have many options of TV like we do now, so we hanged onto the little there was for entertainment. Contestants would be asked, “money or the box”?  and we would all rise in anticipation as to the decision they would make. I can still remember us shouting at home, “MONEY” then “BOX” then “MONEY” as if the guy on TV could hear us.

The second half of life is all about our one thing. Without that we will just wing it and that will be tragic. I feel strongly about that. I met my campus pal this week at Yaya Center and as we caught up on our lives, I mentioned that I want to leave my business. Infact I’ve been wanting to exit my business for the last three years. I’m so ready to leave that I even approached my investors two weeks ago to ask if we can sell it. He looked startled at that and asked why. I told him it will be twenty years this august and that season is over for me.

He then asked me what I want to do once I leave my business. I answer confidently that my future is public service. To many that means working in Gava and I’m not averse to that. One can be in public service without being a civil servant though. For now, we could take public service as my one thing. Though we could still narrow it down further. It’s a work in progress and I will let you folks know once the light mulikas further.

Last year I had a tagline in addition to my word of the year. I would repeat to myself that this will be a good year. And it was to a great extent. This year my tagline is – This will be a busy and productive year. Some of us need to put in concerted effort to remain in a good positive space that will not be taken away by the uncertainties of midlife. Especially when living in Nairobbery as we call it.

The struggle I’m beginning to face now is the busy part of my tagline. January has been busy with efforts to be productive in the commitments I have made, relationally and organizationally. I’m about to sign up for two more exciting roles that I believe are part of the make up for my public service one thing.

I now fear I might get too busy and important things may fall through the cracks. But I’m excited at the same time with these new opportunities because they will be full of new learnings and meeting new people. Hopefully leading to visiting new places and making some good money eventually.

I feel there could be a risk of losing sight of our goal when we get too busy doing stuff. But I also think if we get busy doing the right stuff then that acts as an accelerator towards achieving our goal. We need to occasionally stop and review progress to ensure that we’re still busy on the right track doing the right things. Sounds complicated? maybe our consolation is that at 40 we shouldn’t harakisha things. Go at your pace folks and remember collaboration is the new competition.

We need to be more vigilant in guarding what’s in our box (once we figure it out) and remain open to new possibilities that will activate our one thing. Dean Niewolny, Halftime CEO said recently in a podcast that, ‘’ the reality is we are too busy. And we don’t take enough time to really focus on ourselves.’’

The scary part of that reality is it sounds like it’s describing me now yet that’s who I was in my first half. I’m I a man in his 40s whose still in the rat race? And can I keep up with younger rats joining the race and moving fast and furious. Pascal said that, “the sole cause of a man’s unhappiness is that he does not know how to stay quietly in his room”. At 40 you need to frequently leave the rat race (and eventually exit it altogether) and spend some time in your room folks.

Folks the truth is life happens fast and many times we cannot control that (or so it feels). But we can control how we react to the busyness by really focusing on ourselves as Dean advises. I try to focus on myself by having some quiet time in the middle of the night between 1am and 3am. Not for two hours (I’m not that deep yet) but within that time slot.

The silence and stillness at that time makes it easier to hear myself and what Sir God may be attempting to tell me. Calls hardly drop when you dial heaven at that time guys. Try it. I read a few pages of a book or listen to message on phone at that time. sometimes I just sit in silence and wait. Many times, I have received further instructions on how to deal with an issue. It’s an attempt at ordering my private world so that my public world can also be orderly.

May we jealously guard what’s in our box (once we identify it) from the busyness of our existence like our lives depend on it, because it does. Our destiny depends on it too not just our lives so evaluate your busyness seriously and urgently good people.

Feel free to share here what’s in your box once you find it. If you already know your one thing, let us know. You may just be opening someone else’s box in the process.