Trish's Blog

This year didn’t just arrive; it came with a scoreboard. Blah!

This matters for Weird Wisdom® and Diversity of Thought because somewhere between New Year’s goals, “what I’ve achieved so far” posts, and colour-coded calendars, we’ve quietly started confusing motion with meaning.

We used to brag about titles. Now we brag about busyness. The fuller the calendar, the higher the perceived value. But busy isn’t impact. It’s often just noise and distraction.

When busyness becomes the badge of success, different thinkers get sidelined. The reflective ones. The slow processors. The people who ask better questions instead of booking another meeting. The ones whose contribution doesn’t always show up as activity, but as clarity.

Weird Wisdom® reminds us to measure things differently. Not by how many meetings you attended this week, but by the difference you made. Not by how full your diary is, but by what shifted because you were there.

So, as the “how’s your year going already?” posts keep rolling in, maybe try a quieter question: What actually changed because of your thinking?

That’s where Diversity of Thought lives. And that’s where real progress tends to start.

The obsession with visible productivity did not appear overnight. It has been building for years through workplace habits, social media signals, and cultural praise for hustle. Many people have learned to associate worth with output that can be easily seen or counted. Emails sent. Tasks ticked off. Hours booked. When these become the dominant markers of value, something subtle but significant happens. We begin performing productivity instead of pursuing progress.

Performance looks impressive from the outside. Progress often looks slower and less dramatic. Performance fills a schedule. Progress changes a system. Performance creates activity. Progress creates movement. One is easy to display. The other is easy to overlook, especially in environments that reward speed over substance.

There is a quiet cost to this mindset. When constant activity becomes the expectation, people stop giving themselves permission to think. Deep thinking requires space. It needs pauses, reflection, and sometimes stillness. None of those look busy. In fact, they can look like the opposite. Someone staring out a window or sitting silently with a notebook does not always appear productive. Yet those are often the moments when insight forms. Ideas connect. Patterns become visible. Solutions take shape.

Different thinkers often rely on these quieter processes. Some people generate ideas through discussion. Others generate them through reflection. Some respond instantly. Others need time to process before they speak. Neither approach is better. They are simply different cognitive styles. When environments reward only quick responses and constant visible motion, they unintentionally filter out valuable perspectives from those who work differently.

This is where many teams limit themselves without realizing it. They believe they are prioritizing efficiency, but they may actually be prioritizing speed at the expense of depth. Fast decisions can feel decisive and satisfying. Slow decisions can feel uncomfortable. Yet many complex challenges do not respond well to rushed thinking. They require consideration from multiple angles. They benefit from questions that challenge assumptions. They improve when someone pauses long enough to notice what others missed.

Busyness can also become a shield. When someone is always occupied, they rarely have to explain the impact of their work. Activity can mask a lack of direction. Noise can disguise a lack of clarity. It is much easier to list tasks than to demonstrate transformation. That is why measuring impact requires more courage than measuring effort. Effort is visible. Impact demands reflection and honesty.

Everyone influences this dynamic more than they may realize. The questions you ask signal what matters. If you ask how long something took, people focus on time. If you ask how many actions were completed, people focus on quantity. If you ask what changed as a result, people focus on outcomes. Attention follows measurement. Measurement shapes behaviour. Behaviour shapes culture.

Imagine a workplace where conversations shifted from “How busy are you?” to “What difference did your work make?” That single change would alter priorities overnight. Meetings would become more purposeful. Tasks would be chosen more carefully. Thinking time would gain legitimacy. People would begin to recognize that insight is not a luxury. It is a driver of results.

There is also a personal layer to this. Many individuals carry an internal scoreboard even when no one else is watching. They judge their day by how full it looked rather than how meaningful it felt. They equate exhaustion with achievement. Over time that habit can drain creativity and motivation. Meaningful progress rarely thrives in a state of constant urgency. It grows in conditions that allow attention, curiosity, and thoughtful challenge.

Stepping back from the rush does not mean stepping back from responsibility. It means engaging with intention. It means choosing work that matters instead of work that merely fills time. It means recognizing that sometimes the most valuable contribution is a question that redirects the whole conversation.

So when the updates and comparisons start circulating, when the pressure to prove momentum creeps in, it can help to pause and reset the measure. Not what did I do. Not how much did I fit in. But what changed because I showed up and thought.

That question cuts through noise quickly. It does not reward performance for appearance. It rewards contribution for effect. And when more people start asking it, teams shift. Cultures shift. Results shift.

Progress rarely begins with more motion. It begins with better thinking.