On the Concept and Feasibility of Continued Excitement
People get bored of doing the same thing over and over, being in the same situation, and seeing the same people. For one to stop doing something after starting it may take only a day (like I am with computer games), or maybe a few years (hopefully, as I am thinking nowdays). But even for something of as much personal value as a significant other or high-paying employment, and no matter how difficult and how elated it was for one to get in the beginning, the day will come when it is no longer desirable, and worse, a bit disgusting.
Of course, unless one finds a continued reason for keeping up the excitement for it. Often it involves a whole new aspect of the matter or object in question that was completely overlooked before. A hidden stage in a game (forcing programmers to be more and more sophisticated these days), a sudden new responsibility at work, and a newly discovered common hobby with the partner are all considerable for preventing that natural human curiosity from buying new games, looking for new jobs, and hunting for new girls/boys.
For me, finding that new aspect is much more difficult than others. In terms of the roads walked and experience gained, I am one for quantity over quality, frequency over depth, and size over sophistication. (This is really starting to show in this blog...a lot of length but rough in content...full of grammar and spelling mistakes, for instance). And because I steadfastly hold on to such a view that I cannot help but feel that boredom is really starting to show in my daily life (certainly not hiding it in the blog either).
Do not know if I ever mentioned this before, but since high school, I have not been in the same place to do the same thing for more than 4 months at a time. Even considering 4 years at Yale, I was always away from Yale for at least a few weeks after every semester of 3 and a half months or so. Life (and especially travels) for me is so inseparable with constant change for the last 5 years that I just cannot bear to live without a certain prospect of it at anytime.
And, that magical "4 months" period is quickly approaching for me here in Japan (by the 1st of February, to be precise). Yes, I do understand that a job is different from school that I really do have to stay in one place and do (relatively) the same thing for an extended period of time (2 years minimum, the common logic goes) for it to be valuable in anyways. So I am looking for ways to let my heart calm down and settle in for a prolonged battle here in Tokyo.
So, what do people do to make themselves less agitated about doing something new? The concept behind every effective method seems to be one word, "stakeholder." No, not the propagandistic kind that pop up in every company's philosophy and mission about ensuring employees' loyalty and diligence, but about the mental state one attaches to the societal order of which s/he is currently is a part. High pay does not make one excited about a job (otherwise, NGOs would not exist) and being labelled "special," even in the most positive way imaginable, can quickly become tiring.
That mental comfort, or as I fearfully say, contentment with the status quo, can emerge from two forces, the materialistic and the emotional. The materialistic is easy to explain. The more physical stuff you have in one place, the less you become willing to move away. Tossing out all the expensive bulky good stuff (TV, furniture, etc) is just so sad and a hassle. But, the materialistic is not nearly as powerful as the emotional from a long term perspective.
By emotional, I mean family and friendships (whith I do not really believe in...instead, I am big on fleeting concepts of "acquaintanceships") which many people will trade for (sometimes forcefully) freedom and independence, but mostly I am just talking about romance. There is nothing like an intimate significant other when one wants to be tied down to a certain place. And come to think of it, isn't half the friendships (of both genders) based on conversations about relationships?
And as much as I hate to admit it, I, like any other human, do like to think about it. Certainly willing to spend lengths talking about it in great detail and even (somewhat) think about the issue critically and non-emotionally as I do for other topics...so, given the interests, why not go out and try to expand the channels for making some magic happen? Well, life is one big playground, so we will just have to wait and see whats on offer....
Of course, unless one finds a continued reason for keeping up the excitement for it. Often it involves a whole new aspect of the matter or object in question that was completely overlooked before. A hidden stage in a game (forcing programmers to be more and more sophisticated these days), a sudden new responsibility at work, and a newly discovered common hobby with the partner are all considerable for preventing that natural human curiosity from buying new games, looking for new jobs, and hunting for new girls/boys.
For me, finding that new aspect is much more difficult than others. In terms of the roads walked and experience gained, I am one for quantity over quality, frequency over depth, and size over sophistication. (This is really starting to show in this blog...a lot of length but rough in content...full of grammar and spelling mistakes, for instance). And because I steadfastly hold on to such a view that I cannot help but feel that boredom is really starting to show in my daily life (certainly not hiding it in the blog either).
Do not know if I ever mentioned this before, but since high school, I have not been in the same place to do the same thing for more than 4 months at a time. Even considering 4 years at Yale, I was always away from Yale for at least a few weeks after every semester of 3 and a half months or so. Life (and especially travels) for me is so inseparable with constant change for the last 5 years that I just cannot bear to live without a certain prospect of it at anytime.
And, that magical "4 months" period is quickly approaching for me here in Japan (by the 1st of February, to be precise). Yes, I do understand that a job is different from school that I really do have to stay in one place and do (relatively) the same thing for an extended period of time (2 years minimum, the common logic goes) for it to be valuable in anyways. So I am looking for ways to let my heart calm down and settle in for a prolonged battle here in Tokyo.
So, what do people do to make themselves less agitated about doing something new? The concept behind every effective method seems to be one word, "stakeholder." No, not the propagandistic kind that pop up in every company's philosophy and mission about ensuring employees' loyalty and diligence, but about the mental state one attaches to the societal order of which s/he is currently is a part. High pay does not make one excited about a job (otherwise, NGOs would not exist) and being labelled "special," even in the most positive way imaginable, can quickly become tiring.
That mental comfort, or as I fearfully say, contentment with the status quo, can emerge from two forces, the materialistic and the emotional. The materialistic is easy to explain. The more physical stuff you have in one place, the less you become willing to move away. Tossing out all the expensive bulky good stuff (TV, furniture, etc) is just so sad and a hassle. But, the materialistic is not nearly as powerful as the emotional from a long term perspective.
By emotional, I mean family and friendships (whith I do not really believe in...instead, I am big on fleeting concepts of "acquaintanceships") which many people will trade for (sometimes forcefully) freedom and independence, but mostly I am just talking about romance. There is nothing like an intimate significant other when one wants to be tied down to a certain place. And come to think of it, isn't half the friendships (of both genders) based on conversations about relationships?
And as much as I hate to admit it, I, like any other human, do like to think about it. Certainly willing to spend lengths talking about it in great detail and even (somewhat) think about the issue critically and non-emotionally as I do for other topics...so, given the interests, why not go out and try to expand the channels for making some magic happen? Well, life is one big playground, so we will just have to wait and see whats on offer....
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