Are You Compensating With Overactivity?

This is a great question to ask yourself, particularly if you’re an adult who’s chosen a hectic schedule for himself. Please note I said “chosen a hectic schedule for himself” because that’s what we do – we choose the life pathway we find ourselves on.

Psychologists and time management professionals have been suggesting for decades that we tend to schedule tension into our lives. We overload ourselves and then get overwhelmed and inefficient. Why do we do this?

Let me introduce an answer you may think is ridiculous – to get away from something that’s causing us stress.

To gain an appreciation for this, let’s consider the matter of overactivity. Almost everyone I know falls into periods of overactivity, too many things on the plate, too many commitments and intersecting activities all demanding time and attention. That’s life in America for you…but some folks live chronically in this space. What pushes us to live like this?

Have you ever considered that overactivity allows us to distract ourselves? In some cases this may be helpful, such as returning to work after a few weeks of active mourning following the death of a loved one. It can’t be said that we’re avoiding the grief by returning to work; we’re simply doing what we can to keep from being consumed by it all day long. I guess we might call this a creative distraction. It’s a temporary matter, and time-limited.

On the other hand, sometimes there’s an issue we really have to face, such as a longstanding marriage unhappiness or an addiction situation in our extended family, something we’re really bothered by almost constantly. However, our upset is low-level; it’s not at a high crisis level of intensity. How do folks handle such things? We develop compensation mechanisms…such as overactivity. We learn to distract ourselves routinely, regularly, with an “acceptable” compensation like being super-active, super-involved, super-engaged.

The seductive thing about overactivity is that we tend to get praised and admired for it. Folks comment enviously “how do you do it all?” Memberships on community boards, making sure the kids are a part of activities which require lots of parental support and involvement, leadership in church life…all these are worthwhile endeavors. The question is, how much is enough? How much is too much?

In closing, ask yourself “Am I avoiding some life issue I should pay attention to before it escalates from just bothersome to truly a crisis? Have I fallen into using overactivity as a way to hide from a dilemma I’m afraid of dealing with?” I think most of us have challenges like this we’d rather not attend to. However, problems don’t get solved by avoidance – they just get bigger!