I’m sitting in the Cosmos right now and life is like Pizza: It comes in slices. Some slices ain’t that enjoyable because we eat them too fast. Some slices burn us because we eat them too early. Some slices get cold because we don’t eat them when they’re meant to be eaten and instead do other things. At the end of the day though, we’re hungry and pizza get’s the job done. Who wants to eat with me?
Our mind is a prison when we focus on fear
In recent years anxiety has come to the forefront of clinical psychology. It’s being taken more seriously as each day passes and an increasingly high number of Bros get diagnosed daily with an “anxiety disorder”. Not to state that some people don’t have serious issues that need to be recognized and dealt with but many out there are becoming literal hypochondriacs; people who aren’t actually ill but rather convince themselves they are.
I’ve known a handful of close friends that have some form of anxiety and they’ve become genuinely concerned. They receive confirmation bias from a handful of “doctors” and before they know it, they can’t try new things or go certain places because “it wouldn’t be good for them”. Not to mention they’re given a cute little bottle of pills that will help take all their troubles away, oh how convenient.
Frankly, I’m tired of it all.
I know this anxiety epidemic is nothing more than one of many classic overreactions to our constantly changing environment. We live in the day of technological dominance and we’re flooded with information constantly. We garner these schema’s about society and become weary of our role in it. Of course we’re going to become slightly anxious about the world around us, especially when we go to places someone like us hasn’t gone before. However, it’s getting to a point where people won’t try something new like go to a bar or club because they’ll get too anxious and want to leave.
What the hell happened to getting out of our comfort zones? Nervousness and excitement is being mistaken for anxiety and it’s causing a massive drought in our human development. This is extremely painful to witness and undergo because as a whole we’re becoming cautious and unadventurous. We’re not striving to break out of our shells but we’re living for basic safety. No one wants thrills and uncertainty anymore, what’s that good for? They’d rather take shelter in their homes and binge watch another show on Netflix or play Call of Duty until their fingers are blistered.
We need to open our eyes not to pharmaceutical prescriptions and doctors orders but to the ever expansive world around us. There’s limitless opportunities out there for us to branch out and constantly be doing something. In this world there can be no room for our worries or doubts but only for our curiosity.
Here is our new orders, screw what our doctor says:
Get out of our house and do something that makes us uncomfortable. Stand tall in our discomfort, let it trickle down the back of our throat. Like a muscle gets used to the pain of lifting weights, we’ll get used to the pain of discomfort, and we’ll become better, more experienced. Soon enough, just like in the gym, we won’t feel pain but we’ll be exploring new things with ease. It will become second nature and we’ll finally have the lives we envision ourselves having.
I know, we’re smiling now, because we love that image. Well, don’t let it be an image.
Make it a reality.
This little excerpt here was a rant I went on during a Q/A at a lecture I attended about the American Dream. An individual at the lecture depressingly attempted to propose that the college system is taking away all creative value from it’s disciplines. That students are meant to do busy work and there’s no furthering of the person. I agreed with her but disagreed with her pessimistic tone. I believe that we hold the key to furthering ourselves, and it starts with removing ourselves from the masses.
So often nowadays we go through life following suit with everyone around us. Like sheep we walk blindly behind one another into an Apple store to purchase the next iPhone or iWatch, despite the lack of noticeable differences with the one currently in our pocket. Why do we do this? This is a question of conformity.
We’ve been taught since we were young that we have to go to school, graduate with a good degree, and some of us have been taught to then go to graduate school and eventually get a job, a wife, a decent house, some kids, maybe a dog or a cat, a nice car, and then call it quits. Coast lazily along through a life full of merely contentness, lacking of any variety. This is the American lifestyle we’ve chewed up, swallowed, regurgitated, and spit up into numerous generations. Yet, no one seems to notice or even more importantly,
no one seems to care.
We don’t have to follow this dull, overvalued schema. We can travel the world or go live on a farm. We can experience new things daily and constantly challenge ourselves. Who cares if all our Bros from high school have already graduated from school and have hot pregnant wives. While it’s awesome for them to reach those events in their lives, it shouldn’t put pressure on us even a little bit. We live in our own vessels, with our own thoughts, why should we adhere to what everyone else is doing? It’s a trick question, we don’t.
Have we been living on a schedule constructed by the masses of society? Are we existing among a line of individuals striving for the same systematic life? Or are we living each day out of our best interests, becoming more enriched as each day passes, without regard for how the people around may perceive us? If not, are we really living?
We move to a new town, we struggle to find a steady job, we switch schools or even more common than those, we just plain and simply get distracted. Some way or another we become unproductive, whether that’s through bad habits or bad situations, we generally have become immobile in our goals.
In the day and age of technological domination, the old school ways of being productive are getting lost on us. We don’t want to study because the answers are online, we don’t wanna put work into something because there’s an app that does it for us, we don’t wanna read because we can watch shorter, more general YouTube videos, and because of all this we don’t wanna try new things.
We know, all that sounds a bit depressing. We’re gonna go cliche here and say that, well, the truth hurts. The truly productive bros end up making it to the top in the form of a coding app or some miraculous event like a video going viral online. Not to take away from the Bros that are out there grinding and slowly climbing the ladder. Kudos to them. Although, it’s accurate to say that nowadays many of us are scraping from the bottom of the jar. Why is that though?
One way this could be explained is that no one wants to be truly productive. Well what does being truly productive entail we may ask. Let us put it into an anecdote. We all (may) know that Bro who’s in college, has a part-time job, but just doesn’t seem to be moving anywhere. He’s barely getting by in his classes but still retains a B average, his jobs pays little but it’s okay because his student loans are carrying him along. Yet, with all the resources he has, he just doesn’t seem to be making much gain in the grand scheme of things. That’s because he doesn’t want to be truly productive. In his off time, instead of studying, he most likely browses social media, watches videos, over stimulates himself with music, film, TV and video-games, all for what? The satisfaction of not having to be held responsible for taking a risk on something and actually putting his time toward say, an interest in clothing design. Who knows. All that’s known is that this Bro ain’t truly Broductive.
The only thing we can really do is take steps to consciously better our productivity. Which first and foremost, is not putting ourselves 100% into one thing. When we do that we become side-dominant in the brain. For those that don’t know if we’re right brained we tend to be more artistic and creative; if we’re left-brained we’re thought to be more methodical and analytical. If we want to be Broductive to the max, we gotta be working both sides. Putting 100% of out effort and time into one thing is gonna flop because in the process we’re polarizing ourselves and becoming mentally handicapped. It’s like going to the gym and only working out the left side of our body, we’re gonna look fucked up in a couple of months if not weeks at that rate. Fortunately, the brain is more forgiving, so for the Bros that have been grinding in just one discipline, it’s not never too late.
Another aspect of productivity to touch on is time. For the most part, we try and be productive only during certain times of the day. This is a Bro sin. While yes, there are times where we should be grinding harder than others, picking times where we should be grinding is also picking times where we’ll be lacking, or becoming distracted. Our philosophy should be, if we don’t have a pressing responsibility, we’re going to be productive. In essence, be productive all the time. If we’re watching a football game, study during the commercials, so we can practice songwriting later instead. If we have a long drive on our way to work, listen to that 3-D design video we’ve been putting off for a while.
There are numerous ways in which we can remain productive, even when we may doing something else. This is not to say that we can’t have relaxing times, although your relaxation periods should be generally beneficial to your productivity. Instead of having our relaxing times be more surrounded by LED screens, tailor it more towards meditation, working out, reading poetry, heck even taking a nap will work. Quick last tip, make sure our relaxation is in line with our interests. If we’re an aspiring film maker, feel free to watch movies during your off time. If we’re a potential entrepreneur, playing Overwatch till 3 AM isn’t gonna get us ahead.
The last key to maximum productivity is indefinably important and truly simple yet passes by most people undetected. This thing is called Passion. Yes we fucking capitalized it. Make god damn sure, the thing we’re chasing is being chased with passion. If we’re going for something simply for the money, the clout, or accolades that come along with it, we’re never truly gonna be successful. We may attain more capital, be better off in life, but we will never be happy, which is the biggest part of success, if we aren’t going for something out of passion. Some of us say that the thing we’re passionate about we’re just not good at. Horse cocky, not only is most talent learned and not innate knowledge but the fact of the matter is that those of us who claim this nonsense, haven’t even tried. So now it’s time for full accountability. Look at yourself, and no not in the mirror, take a look at yourself, and deep down, ask yourself, is this my passion. If not, go back to square one and continue to diversify your interests, because if we’re not attacking something with 110% of our heart, our passion and igniting the fire within us, we’re gonna be reduced to merely ashes my Bros.
The Bro Page 