It’s no secret that energy moves in waves.
I’ve just recently become aware of two of them:
“The time-wasting enjoyment” energy wave,
and
“The Life Enrichment” energy wave.
Time-wasting enjoyment is fairly self-explanatory. It’s scrolling through Twitter, Pinterest, and/or Instagram, or watching Youtube videos I had no plans to see. That kind of thing.
Then there’s “Life enrichment energy”; the kind with which I make myself do important tasks. Build good habits and create content. This also includes meditation, reading, listening to audiobooks, drawing. I know these kinds of activities will progress my life forward, but they take willpower to perform.
When I should be doing something I know will improve my life, but I’m busy wasting time with some pointless diversion, the frequencies become erratic and occasionally intermingle. As I’ve observed, when the TROUGH of the “Enjoyment” wave meets the CREST of the “Enrichment” wave, a brief window of opportunity opens and I have a decision to make.
Once that moment passes, I’ve made my decision. In cases where the fun of a diversion outweighs the pressure of a deadline for a project, I’ll say “Fuck it. Let’s have a little fun.”
In cases where I’ve decided to make the “right” decision, I’ve noticed that the energy level of the fun I’m having has to be low enough to stop, while my will to do great things in the future has to be high enough to pursue instead. This window of opportunity only lasts 30 seconds at the most.
With the nature of the internet and social media, it wouldn’t be long before I found another piece of content to distract myself with no matter how irrelevant. So once the window opens, I weigh my options and make my decision before it’s too late.
Otherwise, I’m caught in a limbo where I can’t fully enjoy what I’m watching or doing because of niggling feeling in the back of my head that says I could be doing something much better.
My ideal situation; the one I strive for is:
One in which I work and break at the right times and don’t feel bad about the result. I don’t waste mental energy during work periods, and I don’t lose enjoyment during break periods or use them to put off work.
I’ve become more time-conscious lately, with all the work I’ve put upon myself to do. I think more carefully about how I use my time. Especially when my day job takes up 8 hours of it.
*Womp, womp*
I’m thankful to actually have self-generated work outside of my job to do. Otherwise, I’d be lost.
PROMISE I’ll get into more storytelling stuff soon! This is just an idea I wanted to throw out there for your consideration.
Until next time friends,
-Ken