I am currently working at one of the easiest jobs of my professional career and yet I am exhausted all the time. For nine hours a day (they do not pay over the lunch hour) I sit in a very low-key and fun office and fight the inevitable urge to doze off. It started me thinking about why a job that is neither mentally nor physically taxing can be so tiring. Of course that’s when I realized that any pursuit that we are not truly engaged in on some level will be boring and mentally draining. We are essentially creatures of work and when that aspect of our lives is not fulfilled the sloth-like impulses begin to take over.
This is not my first mindless job, but it is the first that is both mindless and physically easy. I sit in a comfortable leather chair and stair at a computer for eight hours a day. The company itself is great, it’s a national marketing firm that plans, coordinates and tracks elite events, travel, rewards programs, etc., for things like the Superbowl, the Kentucky Derby, and the Masters. My current position their, however, is not fun or exciting and I dread getting up every morning knowing what lie ahead.
The human body is an amazing machine capable of great physical acts. It also possesses a brain that we have made very little progress trying to understand due to its complexity. Mind-numbing activity that could likely be completed with equal ease from a comatose state is not what we are made for. I am so tired, in fact, that after a long day of doing nothing I am too exhausted to work out. I feel my body craving the physical exertion and yet I can barely muster the energy to move the clean dishes from the dishwasher to the kitchen cabinets.
Back in the days of my undergrad I went to classes and worked two jobs that were both physical in nature for the most part. I was utilizing both my brain and my braun and yet I do not remember being this tired every morning when the alarm goes off, throughout the day, and ever night when my head finally hits the pillow. There is the small point that I was nearly twenty or so years younger and therefore had more energy naturally, but I think there is more to it. We need to be active in our bodies and in our minds. The less you do, the less you want to do and that is the golden path toward a life without purpose or fulfillment.
I am so anxious for grad school to start. I want to get back to a career that matters to me, one that necessitates working weekends or taking work home with me at night. It is tiresome, yes, but it gives a sense of achievement and value that we need in our lives. I often wondered how my much-hated Stepfather managed to work at a factory for so many years. I cannot imagine that meatsuit being capable of much else, but the mere notion of standing in one place doing a repetitive activity for ten hours a day terrified me. We are meant for more and greater things and right now I am contributing nothing to my own growth or that of the world besides a paycheck. It is nice to have this feeling anytime I start to get a little scared at the idea of going back to school and working at the same time. It will be daunting, but daunting can be good, it’s how we know what we are capable of and drives us to accomplish more.
I can really relate to this one. Since Sean and I and both of our boys are ADHD I have done a lot of research on the brain. Chase has a lot of other issues along with adhd. I have found through my research that it all has to do with dopamine, neurotransmitters and how they work together. There's a lot more to it than that but all of these impulse concentration, focus issues all stem from the brain. When Chase takes stimulants it is like night and day. Even his handwriting is better but for Chase he can't take stimulants because they bring out nasty tics. There is so much about the brain we don't know. I am amazed how little we know with all of the medical breakthroughs we have seen. They are doing a lot of research on the brain and I think in the next few years we will learn a lot. At least I am hoping so.
ReplyDeleteI think motivation has a lot to do with a drive and interest in something. Sean used to work in an office and hated it. He would never get up easily. I would have to practically kick him out of bed after he hit the snooze like 5 times!!! Now when he wakes up at 5:30am for the fire station I don't even hear him because he gets right up.
If there is one thing I want to teach my kids it is to do what they love and get paid for it. That may be part of the reason your step dad was such an ass-- He was living a very unstatisfying life.
The main reason I am against more entitlement programs is because there is no gratification in getting a check every month from the government. Most of our tenants that get govt checks don't work at all. I don't know their circumstances but I do know most seem pretty capable.
If you research people who have commited crimes they are usually not connected. When I sey that I mean they don't have a connection with family, friends, community or activities.
When we figure out what makes us happy we will be physically and mentally healthier and will get the urge to do more and be better. Doing more and pushing ourselves gives us more satisfaction so its a catch 22. The opposite is true also.