The Origin of Tiresomeness (the Mental Kind)
Perhaps it is not the specific attributes of certain individuals to feel tired out of the blue, for no reason in particular. There was no exercise of any sort done recently, nor has there been any particular mental task that required so much thinking that it strains the body for just supplying oxygen to the brain. A person can just sit there, surf the Internet, be completely passive for a couple of hours, and still manage to feel absolutely tired out in a short period of time. It really makes the person think about exactly what is causing the energy drain.
A good way to think about the topic might be to look at it from the opposing angle, i.e. exactly what causes a person to be excited about something. After all, from a strictly mental perspective, to be excited about something is to ignore the pains associated with it, whether the pains comes in the form of the great efforts needed for substantial implementation or achievement, or at a more basic level, just giving the person in question the motivation to persist with the same direction. Previous post discussed how limited-time participation can give the excitement, but it cannot be the only way.
Instead, the excitement (a sustainable one not based on the fact that the person is doing something for a short term and will move on to something else soon after) has to come from fundamental affinity toward the task at hand. To put it simply, one really has to see fulfillment in doing a certain task to be able to see value in continuing on with it. This fulfillment, the author finds, is not something that comes from receiving a large sum of money or supposed respect from others for doing it. That is not enough for sustainability.
On the contrary, the completion of the task must be accompanied by a feeling that its completion will add value to the self and everyone else who will be affected by its outputs. Of course, the so-called "added value" needs clear definition, as anything with perception of however remote positive impact can be termed as added value. Yet, the value here is truly an individual experience, one that is improbable for systemic definition based on some objective criteria. It is a feeling that cannot be explained rationally but highly visible to the person in question.
For the author though, the current tiredness he is experiencing sees little precedent. He previously had disillusions within the specific tasks being done for work, and attempted to change the situation by moving into different tasks while remaining loyal to the firm. This time he was even offered the opportunity to move into a different line of work, in a proactive manner about which he did not even inquire. Yet, the feeling that the new thing, despite obvious differences in details, will give "much of the same feelings" cannot escape his imagination.
And hence the tiredness. It is not so much boredom with the particular tasks at hand, but a general feeling that the entire direction of what one is doing and what one strive to accomplish but perfecting what he is doing now add no value to the very being of oneself. When one negates the very person that he is becoming by moving down the same path, the disillusionment is much more than just the outcome of some specific work or issues that surround the specific work (relating to inter-personal relationships or intra-organizational hierarchies).
It is, in some sense, a feeling of being lost. A stage of self-denial that cast doubt on the very things on has been doing for the past years, yet cannot be easily extricated through clever maneuvers to better one's positions short of anything that basically turns one's life upside down. The exhaustion, then, becomes two-fold, a strenuous effort to get into a new path that divert from the current one that no longer excites...and the complete blackness ahead on the new path that one is trying to get onto, making the supposed "bright new road" as ambiguous as it is scary.
But, at the end of the day, to explore the unknown is always better than sticking with the status quo. There is inherent danger in a system that encourages life-time employment for the sake of unambitious stability-seeking. Especially in the fast-changing economy of today's world, the relevance of some work quickly changes, with the idea of "added value" magnifying or shrinking rapidly over the years. Even for the sake of such, it makes sense for continued exploration of new opportunities and new excitements. If one is to be tiredness, the physical exhaustion of doing this is hundred times better than the mental exhaustion of being bored.
A good way to think about the topic might be to look at it from the opposing angle, i.e. exactly what causes a person to be excited about something. After all, from a strictly mental perspective, to be excited about something is to ignore the pains associated with it, whether the pains comes in the form of the great efforts needed for substantial implementation or achievement, or at a more basic level, just giving the person in question the motivation to persist with the same direction. Previous post discussed how limited-time participation can give the excitement, but it cannot be the only way.
Instead, the excitement (a sustainable one not based on the fact that the person is doing something for a short term and will move on to something else soon after) has to come from fundamental affinity toward the task at hand. To put it simply, one really has to see fulfillment in doing a certain task to be able to see value in continuing on with it. This fulfillment, the author finds, is not something that comes from receiving a large sum of money or supposed respect from others for doing it. That is not enough for sustainability.
On the contrary, the completion of the task must be accompanied by a feeling that its completion will add value to the self and everyone else who will be affected by its outputs. Of course, the so-called "added value" needs clear definition, as anything with perception of however remote positive impact can be termed as added value. Yet, the value here is truly an individual experience, one that is improbable for systemic definition based on some objective criteria. It is a feeling that cannot be explained rationally but highly visible to the person in question.
For the author though, the current tiredness he is experiencing sees little precedent. He previously had disillusions within the specific tasks being done for work, and attempted to change the situation by moving into different tasks while remaining loyal to the firm. This time he was even offered the opportunity to move into a different line of work, in a proactive manner about which he did not even inquire. Yet, the feeling that the new thing, despite obvious differences in details, will give "much of the same feelings" cannot escape his imagination.
And hence the tiredness. It is not so much boredom with the particular tasks at hand, but a general feeling that the entire direction of what one is doing and what one strive to accomplish but perfecting what he is doing now add no value to the very being of oneself. When one negates the very person that he is becoming by moving down the same path, the disillusionment is much more than just the outcome of some specific work or issues that surround the specific work (relating to inter-personal relationships or intra-organizational hierarchies).
It is, in some sense, a feeling of being lost. A stage of self-denial that cast doubt on the very things on has been doing for the past years, yet cannot be easily extricated through clever maneuvers to better one's positions short of anything that basically turns one's life upside down. The exhaustion, then, becomes two-fold, a strenuous effort to get into a new path that divert from the current one that no longer excites...and the complete blackness ahead on the new path that one is trying to get onto, making the supposed "bright new road" as ambiguous as it is scary.
But, at the end of the day, to explore the unknown is always better than sticking with the status quo. There is inherent danger in a system that encourages life-time employment for the sake of unambitious stability-seeking. Especially in the fast-changing economy of today's world, the relevance of some work quickly changes, with the idea of "added value" magnifying or shrinking rapidly over the years. Even for the sake of such, it makes sense for continued exploration of new opportunities and new excitements. If one is to be tiredness, the physical exhaustion of doing this is hundred times better than the mental exhaustion of being bored.
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