Dear Diary,<\/p>\n
Whether we agree with our upbringing or rebel against it, it shapes us in ways not easily understood.\u00a0 I was brought up in an age of capitalism wherein climbing the mobility ladder and pulling it up behind you was just a Tuesday.\u00a0 Climate change reports were actively buried;\u00a0 all that mattered was ‘growth.’\u00a0 Much of the same attitudes are present today, but with the added threats of surging white supremacy and anti-intellectualism.\u00a0 The capital class distracts the majority with a manufactured culture war to win the class war largely uncontested. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0When we zoom in on this modern lifestyle, it won’t be long until we find the word ‘productivity.’\u00a0 The word represents another invisible force controlling us that isn’t supposed to be questioned.\u00a0 However, what is productivity?<\/p>\n
The capital class would likely tell you productivity relates to making money.\u00a0 You aren’t being productive if you aren’t making the capital class money. \u00a0No posters are staring you in the face saying that directly, but it is everywhere.\u00a0 Turn on any news channel, and there will be stories about money being lost, even if the story is little more than fuel on the culture war fire via having a target to blame.\u00a0 Immigrants, Millennials, and anyone daring to question the system are all the ones preventing you from having more money.\u00a0 At what point did the meaning of life become an endless loop of trying to have more?<\/p>\n
Let us imagine a plausible scenario, shall we?\u00a0 You get up and get right to work, and you fly through your to-do list.\u00a0 You look at the clock and feel great!\u00a0 You’re accomplishing things; you’re being productive.\u00a0 Your productivity buries the anxiety you have for the moment because all those items crossed off mean something in and of itself.\u00a0 However, you’re exhausted and frustrated the next day as your number of crossed-off items is fewer.\u00a0 You immediately feel in your core ‘less is bad’ and resolve to get more done as soon as possible.\u00a0 You skip over validating all the work you accomplished; the focus is solely on what is left to do.\u00a0 There will always be things left to do, but you feel this urge to ‘keep up.’<\/p>\n
Who sets the standard for what makes a productive day?\u00a0 The invisible hand of our society tells us more is good and less is bad.\u00a0 This endless journey of ‘more’ ingrained in us brings forth anxiety when we perceive ourselves not doing more.\u00a0 By assigning meaning to these external pressures, we cease to define productivity for ourselves.\u00a0 We prevent ourselves from celebrating successes because we want to live up to invisible and impossible standards.\u00a0 What happens when we reclaim ‘productivity’ for ourselves?\u00a0 We can begin to set healthy barriers to give ourselves the breathing room to rest and live.<\/p>\n
Rest is productivity, as is pursuing a hobby.\u00a0 How often do we get told rest and recreation is slacking off or is otherwise wasteful?\u00a0 Have we stopped to ask who is saying these things?\u00a0 The answer probably lies in someone who benefits from your labor.\u00a0 Have we stopped to examine why mainstream media strives to make you angry at someone else?\u00a0 The answer likely has something to do with you being ok with programs helping ‘them’ being taken away.\u00a0 Who benefits from the ordinary citizen having fewer opportunities?\u00a0 The capital class.\u00a0 If you are uneducated and poor, you can’t resist the system.<\/p>\n
Imposter Syndrome is subtly woven into the fabric of late-stage capitalism.\u00a0 There is always something to strive for, something you can do better – ‘more.’\u00a0 We compare ourselves to people we perceive as doing things better and pressure ourselves to emulate their success. \u00a0We strip away human considerations like limitations, circumstances, random chance, etc., and only focus on the end result.\u00a0 This conditioning is by design; it is drilled into us to produce and consume more.\u00a0 Our increased production and consumption leads to someone on a TV screen or boardroom pointing at an upwards graph and the capital class reaping more and more.<\/p>\n
We can seize the meaning of our productivity back for ourselves.\u00a0 Time spent in the garden, in the kitchen, on the trail, or whatever else allows being present without suffering is time well invested. We know when we’ve done the best we can and don’t need the invisible hand of social pressure to validate us.\u00a0 There are, and will continue to be, times where rest is the best we can do.\u00a0 Every day does not need to be record-breaking.\u00a0 We do not have to live a life of continuous burnout striving to achieve an ever-increasing standard of ‘more.’<\/p>\n
We all have different dreams for our ideal lifestyle.\u00a0 For those who want to travel worldwide in first-class, the time they invest in making that possible is significant.\u00a0 It is ok to enjoy a different lifestyle.\u00a0 It is ok to be happy with a smaller house and a garden.\u00a0 It is ok to listen to the birds chirping outside.\u00a0 Sitting and watch the water flow by for a while could be just what the doctor ordered.\u00a0 Give yourself time to daydream; let yourself be bored from time to time.\u00a0\u00a0 We will find the inspiration to live with intention in these restful moments.\u00a0\u00a0 We will know where our time and effort should be invested; \u00a0we will understand how to be productive sustainably.\u00a0 Align intention with action and be happy; you are worth it.<\/p>\n
P.S. – Yes, work is important.\u00a0 However, work is not the ‘be-all-to-end-all’ facet of our lives.\u00a0 We don’t have to be an executive to be successful at work.\u00a0 We don’t need to have millions of interactions across several continents to do something meaningful.\u00a0 Every day, we can create meaning by doing what we enjoy doing – whether going on a bike ride, fixing a car, writing a book, or learning something new.\u00a0 It isn’t required that we listen to those with more than they’ll ever need telling us to give them more.\u00a0 It is ok to do and have ‘enough.’\u00a0 Even more critical is we don’t have to listen to others telling us we haven’t accomplished enough.\u00a0 Imposter Syndrome is an unnecessary pressure we put on ourselves.\u00a0\u00a0 It is ok to do the best you can and leave it without judgment and comparison to what we ‘should’ be doing or what that person did over there.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Dear Diary, Whether we agree with our upbringing or rebel against it, it shapes us in ways not easily understood.\u00a0 I was brought up in an age of capitalism wherein climbing the mobility ladder and pulling it up behind you was just a Tuesday.\u00a0 Climate change reports were actively buried;\u00a0 all that mattered was ‘growth.’\u00a0 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[304],"tags":[312,330],"class_list":["post-28183","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dear-diary","tag-312","tag-rest"],"yoast_head":"\n