Looking for Brain Candy
"I surfed a lot in my teens and early twenties, then put it away and worked like a dog till I was thirty. Made some money, didn't like the life. I fucked off and surfed through my thirties and forties. Now I'm a fifty-four-year-old bus driver. A bus driver. You've got to be careful."
- Charlie in West of Jesus, by Steven Kotler
I've been trying to get this blog going for awhile, but the material just hasn't been flowing. So, I did what I usually do when I hit a energetic or creative wall: I took a shower. I don't quite understand it, but a good hot shower always seems to get my brain cells going. Maybe it turns out that soap and shampoo are the magical elixirs of mental productivity, but that is neither here nor here. Anyway, I had this thought in the shower: "Creating one's life is like putting together a jig-saw puzzle where the picture is constantly changing."
This year has been a very productive year on all the "adult levels." I've gotten the CPA ball rolling, eliminated a chunk of personal debt, made some pretty serious strides at work this year, and cleaned up my diet--which has been like coming off of a horrible, yet wonderful drug. I'd submit that what I've done this year is all very "responsible" behavior. Please keep in mind, I'm a Gemini; while my responsible Twin is very happy and content, the other one is pissing and moaning.
In the past, I probably would have gotten really worked up and wondered if this was the ever impending quarter-life crisis that I've heard so much about. After this year of writing, I realized that creating balance in one's life is a never ending balancing act. We all have different needs at different time for different reasons. Expecting that each situation can be solved with the same "magic bullet" is madness. My relentless pursuit of progress this year has caught up to me now; the daily monotony has me mentally broken down. The cure for this is something simple: an enjoyable distraction. The only thing is that I don't know what enjoyable distraction is going to do the trick. Oh well, I'll have to try a couple.
I've heard that expression "the daily grind" for a long time. It is at this moment that I understand what it means. Up until this year, I've had jobs that I either didnt' like, or worked with people who were total jerks. Neither is the case with my current position. The reason I say this is that I've experienced these feelings in the past, but blamed it on the job or the people that I worked with. My thought is this: Irregardless of much you enjoy your work, or enjoy the people you work with, the monotony and routiness of a schedule is going to catch up to you at some point.
What is boils down to is this: I don't have an immediate solution, but I am aware of the causes of what got me here. Spending a lot of time working towards long-term goals is great, and will always pay-off. But what the high-achievers rarely talk about is taking intermittent, i.e. intermediate breaks, to reward yourself for the hard work and to recharge the batteries.
- Charlie in West of Jesus, by Steven Kotler
I've been trying to get this blog going for awhile, but the material just hasn't been flowing. So, I did what I usually do when I hit a energetic or creative wall: I took a shower. I don't quite understand it, but a good hot shower always seems to get my brain cells going. Maybe it turns out that soap and shampoo are the magical elixirs of mental productivity, but that is neither here nor here. Anyway, I had this thought in the shower: "Creating one's life is like putting together a jig-saw puzzle where the picture is constantly changing."
This year has been a very productive year on all the "adult levels." I've gotten the CPA ball rolling, eliminated a chunk of personal debt, made some pretty serious strides at work this year, and cleaned up my diet--which has been like coming off of a horrible, yet wonderful drug. I'd submit that what I've done this year is all very "responsible" behavior. Please keep in mind, I'm a Gemini; while my responsible Twin is very happy and content, the other one is pissing and moaning.
In the past, I probably would have gotten really worked up and wondered if this was the ever impending quarter-life crisis that I've heard so much about. After this year of writing, I realized that creating balance in one's life is a never ending balancing act. We all have different needs at different time for different reasons. Expecting that each situation can be solved with the same "magic bullet" is madness. My relentless pursuit of progress this year has caught up to me now; the daily monotony has me mentally broken down. The cure for this is something simple: an enjoyable distraction. The only thing is that I don't know what enjoyable distraction is going to do the trick. Oh well, I'll have to try a couple.
I've heard that expression "the daily grind" for a long time. It is at this moment that I understand what it means. Up until this year, I've had jobs that I either didnt' like, or worked with people who were total jerks. Neither is the case with my current position. The reason I say this is that I've experienced these feelings in the past, but blamed it on the job or the people that I worked with. My thought is this: Irregardless of much you enjoy your work, or enjoy the people you work with, the monotony and routiness of a schedule is going to catch up to you at some point.
What is boils down to is this: I don't have an immediate solution, but I am aware of the causes of what got me here. Spending a lot of time working towards long-term goals is great, and will always pay-off. But what the high-achievers rarely talk about is taking intermittent, i.e. intermediate breaks, to reward yourself for the hard work and to recharge the batteries.
posted by Zen_Accountant at 9:21 AM
1 Comments:
The daily grind is certianly an element of our career choice. We are in a industry that prizes strict rules and order. We do the same things month in and month out. It either will numb you or drive you crazy if you're not careful. Other jobs aren't like that, but they have their own trade-offs. In other words, most of the time in life you have to pick your poison and go with it.
MAD
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