Another day dawns, and I realize it's going to be a busy one. As always, I go into the day with a seemingly endless *"to-do list,"* which will only grow longer, in the course of the day.

When I stop working — probably around 11:00pm tonight — many of the things on that list will not have been done, and rather than feeling a sense of accomplishment and that I have *"gained on it,"* I will most likely feel like I just *"ran in place"* and that whatever I accomplished with *not enough.*

![0806-GrayDay2.jpg](https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmd7T2kRqVudRRjZytNdiQaaAGbpKvH6fACp8VoSb6PYuG/0806-GrayDay2.jpg)

## *The Self-Employment Hamster Wheel*

Many people who become self-employed choose this path as a means to escape the *"traditional"* hamster wheel of some corporate job, or other occupation that leaves them feeling like their work is *meaningless,* and they have to *work too hard, for too little reward."*

The sad truth is that these *"hamster wheels"* of busy-ness for little reward exist pretty much everywhere.

The trouble with *being busy* is that we often end up being busy with a lot of meaningless things. For example, we feel like we *"must"* attend various so-called *"Business Networking Opportunities"* where we *actually* end up standing around for three hours talking to people whose sole mission is to try to sell us dodgy network marketing programs or timeshares in Acapulco... that *don't actually exist.*

My point here is... pretty much *everyone* at a networking event tends to be there to *sell* and nobody is there to *buy* or even *look for* goods or services.

![0816-Falls.jpg](https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmRXiC5eLs22JGcY5if7peK1mCzuiF8RfGFB9W8U5YMhyZ/0816-Falls.jpg)

## *What "BUSY" Often MEANS, in the Lives of the Self-Employed...*

One of the problems/challenges many entrepreneurs and self-employed individuals face is that we are pretty bad at prioritizing what we need to get done.

And — somehow — we make ourselves *"victims"* of the inaccurate belief that *as long as we are busy, it must mean we are working on something, which means we are building our success!*

Don't get me wrong, I often catch *myself* in this pattern, even though I definitely know better. I like to call it the *"Cleaning My Desk So I Can Do My Work Syndrome."*

95% of the time, it's little more than wasting time.

We do things for reasons that often *feel* legitimate, but *effectively and functionally* are not. They relate to personal and business *"image,"* and sometimes to our own misguided sense of what *"being in business for yourself*" entails.

Remember, stop and take stock of what you are doing, and stick to doing the things that actually *have a direct bearing* on furthering your line of work!

![0863-Yellow.jpg](https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmeiNLWP5GiEx6TSVuaAa5KszSzvJi4YSX65XGhfQf7Wyk/0863-Yellow.jpg)

## *Remember Changing Conditions and Revisiting What You Are Doing!*

Part of the problem is also that we tend to get into *patterns* where we do things because they they used to be a relevant part of our lives.

Let me give you a super simple and in-context example:

I used to create 2-3 blog posts on Steemit pretty much every single day. I did so, because — ***at the time*** — that would add $40-50 a day to my income. As such, I could justify the time spent writing blog posts as *"materially contibuting"* to my life.

Today, the world of Steem has changed to where I have had to move Steeming from *"income"* to *"entertainment."*

Whereas it would be *really nice* to be able to spend 3-4 hours a day writing, doing so would merely keep me very *"busy"* but it would not materially help my cause as a self-employed individual.

![0877-Thistle.jpg](https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmTGrqmWxL24Ew3tedkXAzqwnQ4i76ALb97MweJUYSc6q9/0877-Thistle.jpg)

Over the years, I have had to regularly stop and evaluate whether things and activities I kept on doing — because they seemed important *at one time* — were still serving me.

And sometimes that can lead to some very difficult (business) decisions — such as deciding that a certain small business you have may *simply not be viable anymore,* pure as a result of changing market conditions. 

For example, I gave up being a contract technical writer because I could not compete with people with Masters degrees in English from US and British universities, who were living in South-East Asia where the cost of living is much lower.

But you have to be willing to *make* those difficult decisions, or you end up on that *"busy-ness hamster wheel"* without doing yourself any good!

Success is something we reach when what we do *matters,* rather than simply because we are *busy!*

Thank you for reading!

*(Another **#creativecoin** creative non-fiction post, also submitted to the Intrepreneur tribe)*

***Comments, feedback and other interaction is invited and welcomed! Because — after all — SOCIAL content is about interacting, right? Leave a comment-- share your experiences-- be part of the conversation!***

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*(As usual, all text and images by the author, unless otherwise credited. This is original content, created expressly for this platform.)
Created at 190920 08:54 PDT*
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