Good evening ladies and gentleman
Have you ever had that feeling, that confusing knot in your stomach, an itch you cant seem to quite reach- almost like you feel something so powerful but have no idea what it is. You feel it coursing through your veins every minute of every day, it keeps you feeling something, but to understand it feels a near impossible task. You’re not good, you’re not bad, you don’t feel right, but you’re not sure what’s wrong. Lost in emotional limbo, in a cycle of daydreaming, confusion and anger at the answer to a problem you didn’t even know you had.
More times than i care to count I have found myself in this very position. Sure there’s more to life than what I’m doing- pushing through pain and through barriers in some belief happiness and peace will rear its head as a result, but it sometimes is a struggle to know what. I see people online, these famous millionaires and billionaires giving speeches, talking about working 18 hours a day, 7 days a week and not taking a holiday because it’s time you “should be working.”
Through such influences, its easy to feel like you aren’t doing enough and as you push yourself to do more and more, burnout becomes inevitable and the quality of your work lessens as a result. When you see all the hours you put in, the hard work (considering how you felt hard work could be something as simple as trying to keep your eyes open) and it doesn’t look right, or you feel it sub-par to your usual high standards- you start to wander what the point of carrying on is.
With those influencers there is something we’ve missed. We, as a species, as the world nation across the pages of the media and social networking platforms -see the final results. We see 10% percent of what is happening in their world. We see the the positivity that comes from the other 90%. So in truth, we are being influenced by the shiny object at the end of all the work, but the truth is we miss a few things along the way. Say for example- Elon Musk and Tesla.
Love him or hate him, love Tesla or hate it the basic idea started from wanting to eliminate the petrol powered car and as a result of his work, numerous manufacturers have had to follow suit. The work he has put in is tremendous but thats not what we see, we see the 10% percent in the end. We see nothing of the pain, the struggle and most importantly here, the rest and recuperation- the “R & R.”
This, i believe, is the most massively misunderstood and undervalued aspect of life. Hard work is unquestionably very important when it comes to achieving goals and being successful, but the rest is just as important. Taking that time away from the screen, the power of standing up, going to the kitchen and making yourself a cup of tea is unparalleled in this uber connected world we live in. The action of going for dinner with family, with a loved on and not having the phones out, the power of the connection you have by being disconnected will drive your mind better than any level of caffeine ever could.
R & R these days seem to have taken on this ugly sort of ideal, that is something that should be done minimally before returning to the grind that is life. “Life is hard, life is difficult and if you ever want to get anywhere, you better be ready to give it all up for it!”
This is work. Nobody wants to work, i don’t think. We need financial stability to survive in modern society, so accept this employment hierarchy is something we have to be a part of in order to carry on the way we are. From the outside in, people like Elon Musk spend and have spent most of their adult lives working . This is the other aspect of life we often misunderstand- enjoyment.
It’s hard to enjoy anything anymore, for fear of ridicule, for not fitting in, for being called out, cancelled or just hated. But to use Elon Musk again as an example, the man loves what he spends his time doing. The impact of his work is having a positive impact on his life. This is him trying to leave a legacy, a mark on this ever changing world, something i have no doubt he will achieve ten times over. Why? He works hard, takes R & R and loves so much all of what he does.
It’s so important to rest, to press pause on the world for a while. To sleep in, to go for brunch and spend all day watching movies, when the only thing on the agenda for the day is nothing at all. I believe this with all my heart. The brain is a muscle and if you overwork it- it gets tired, just like any other muscle in your body. You have to get through these periods and they have to happen, but you have to rest to find your strength, to find your balance once again. It will reignite your love for what you’re doing and wanting to do, remind of you what you want and who you want to be.
Nobody is saying stop working. All i’m saying is to take a day and remember why you started.
Yours, with love as always.
D.R x
