As much as you may want to run full speed ahead, that’s not always your best course of action. It may be “Driven Behavior”, a major cause of burnout.
What exactly so I mean by Driven Behavior? Imagine flies buzzing around on a hot summer day. They produce a lot of noise and activity but leave nothing behind of substance!
Driven Behavior is activity that has no connection at all to our life’s purpose, so all the activity in the world won’t get us any closer to it.
In The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying, Sogyal Rinpoche writes that our Driven Behavior is a type of active laziness that “consists of cramming our lives with compulsive activity, so there is not time at all to confront the real issues. Our lives seem to live us, to possess their own bizarre momentum, to carry us away. In the end we feel we have no control or choice over them.”
Many of us are sleep deprived, exhausted, and busier than we have ever been and yet the dreams we had for our life seems further and further away. That’s because we cannot reach them with just any kind of action.
“How do I recognize it in my own life?” you may ask?
Here are the 3 Symptoms of Driven Behavior:
- Repetition: You think or do something over and over even if it causes needless effort and does not move you forward. Even when you get frustrated, angry or sad about it, you continue the behavior or thought.
- Limited Satisfaction: Driven Behavior is particularly joyless. We feel compelled to fill every waking hour with an item on our “to do” lists – much of which gives us limited or short-lived satisfaction.
- And lastly, Perfectionism: “Just one more finishing touch.” Perfectionism can masquerade as virtue, but be careful – most often it’s an excuse for not producing the result you promised.
Here’s a quick tip – Take some quiet time to look at the 3 symptoms – Repetition, Lack of Satisfaction and Perfectionism – notice where they might apply in your life. What are you seeing? Write it down.
Take a deep breath and be compassionate with yourself. Your only goal here is to uncover where your own Driven Behavior has kept you from focusing your energy effectively!
Don’t be surprised to notice that often doing LESS will reward you with MORE satisfaction, fulfillment and enjoyment. As a Coach I see it all the time!
And remember…Whatever your goal or dream… WE Can Make it Happen!
