I cringe when others ask whether I am “staying busy.” My reaction is first to take a breath because otherwise, I might just say something that might be off-putting to the questioner. (Yes, I have learned restraint in my “old age.”)
Staying busy is not, for me, the goal.
My goal is to:
Stay engaged
Stay interested in learning
Stay committed to personal health
Stay involved with my family, friends, and community
Stay open to new experiences
While I get it, the expression is a common and easy way to find out how someone is doing in the years after their career. But it is, in my thinking, a holdover from work years where being BUSY connotes success.
In Chapter X, we need to change the mindset and terminology to be more relevant to where we are and what we’re doing and separate it from the decades of work life.
What expressions or terms have you heard that make you cringe, question, or find irrelevant in your life today? Please share.
