There’s always been a drip of competitiveness in society. Yet, in 2021, everybody can say for sure that the level of competition is out of whack. It’s not only about competition in business but also in everyday life.
Globalization and social media let anybody observe how most people live and what they do. The pandemic locked down many citizens in their homes, and from the very start, there were speculations about how much stuff everybody would have time for.
Students would say they won’t order essays from essay services like EssayWritingService anymore. Ex-commuters would state they will have time for morning runs and cooking. Yet, here we are. Food delivery thrives, writing services are in demand as well. Exercising, on the other hand, didn’t go so well for many of those who believed they would get fit finally.
Yet, social media is full of ads and posts about people who seem to have improved their lifestyles since the beginning of the pandemic. And here’s another group scrolling down the feed and thinking that they are not equally productive, hence lazy.
The tendency to be productive is neither a panacea nor pure evil. As any means, it should be approached wisely. Let’s review each aspect of this matter here below.
Reasons for Trying to Be Productive
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These have mostly psychological origins. Of course, sometimes, a person being productive is someone driven by a specific (SMART) goal. This is the only option when one is on their way to growing personally or professionally. Unfortunately, not so many people fall under this category. Often, one loads themselves with a number of activities to:
- prove they are as good as others;
- fight the anxiety and try to control at least something in their lives;
- distract themselves from their problems;
- compete with somebody due to self-esteem issues.
The truth is that none of the vague goals above are aimed at growth. They are the evidence that something wrong is going on in one’s life, they are symptoms. Treating these ‘symptoms’ with a productive lifestyle will at best help one buy time till they are able to face their problems.
Anyway, the thing to remember is that everyone has their own reasons. If you don’t want to be as productive as they are, it means you have other values and needs. It doesn’t make you or them better or worse. It’s just who you are. It’s just who they are.
Pressure From the Productivity Culture
Human nature is prone to jealousy and hoard instinct. When there is a tendency to show activity in some areas, some people may feel the pressure that they should engage in it as well. Whether they end up keeping up with the majority or not, the decision driven by ‘I’ve got to conform’ or ‘I’m gonna be a rebel’ will not bear any fruits.
The key is in your values, not the values of the rest of the people. Think about what helps you personally, makes you happy, and motivates you from the inside. That’s the way to find out what you actually need. Ditch those yoga classes if you don’t feel like going there. Maybe it’s not the right time. Maybe you need to attend to more crucial aspects.
So, before jumping right into the swirl of activities, ask yourself: do you want to do it to keep up with others or do you have a particular aim that will bring you specific results that will make you happier?
Social media can become an enemy in this case. Seeing others doing yoga each morning or posting a time lapse showing how they painted a picture may be exciting. Yet, some of those individuals tend to be too aggressive in their calls to action, leave alone resorting to some sort of body-shaming or harping on why everybody is so lazy.
If you come across such profiles, posts or ads, it’s in your hands to choose to ‘unsubscribe’, ‘hide’, ‘block’, etc. These days, it’s not a problem.
Useful Achievements vs. Senseless Rambling
Having a goal and the objectives for it to be met means knowing what you’re doing it for. It means that you set a priority and achieve your goal step-by-step. Then you celebrate it. You celebrate that something significant happened to your life and now you feel happier, free, or satisfied. And there’s an opposite of it.
One can stay productive and be engaged in a number of activities. Yet, sooner or later, they may realize they spent too much of their time outsourcing important assignments to https://essayservice.com/reflective-essay-writing-service and, instead, doing something they can’t apply in real life. Yes, they know a lot of theory and can boast of their knowledge in a conversation. But what about practice? What about the relevance of this knowledge today?
You can gather a lot of information about the methods of developing useful habits but never develop one. As already mentioned, globalization has been changing the world, drastically. So has the technology. You can spend months learning a programming language that will have become rather outdated by the moment you master it.
The point is, people around you may seem more knowledgeable or proficient than you as you listen to them. Meanwhile, you can’t know for sure whether those achievements and information help them in the end.
Social media can show an even prettier picture. Yet, fear, doubts, and attempts to run away from something often hide behind all this scenery. Don’t fall prey to it.
It’s vital for any human being to socialize. But it’s not less important to set boundaries so that aggressive external factors do not interfere with your personality. Don’t let them reshape you and your values, thus making you unhappy.
Conclusion
As you can see, the question set initially in this post can be answered either way. The only thing that defines the answer is what you’re trying to achieve and how you do it.
Following a trendy lifestyle, absorbing one’s values, and neglecting your own ones may make you miserable. On the other hand, you can grow both personally and professionally if you have a specific goal that will make you satisfied in a particular sphere of your life. The choice is yours.
