When you’re growing up as a child, if you weren’t forced into school, most kids wouldn’t go. If most kids weren’t pressured to study English, math, read, or wake up and bus to school, they wouldn’t go. However, in hindsight, as a child grows up, he/she can reflect back on childhood and see that learning English, math, how to read, etc. was greatly beneficial to his/her life.
People often say “I don’t want to do it because it’s boring” or “I don’t want to eat vegatables because they don’t taste good”. I’ll argue that these statements are terrible misunderstandings about life, and maximizing life involves doing things that are sometimes boring or doing things that you sometimes don’t want to.
Going for a run without your headphones may be boring, though it is vital to how our bodies work. In our not so distant history, we were forced to hunt, build shelter, and be cautious of potential predators. However, today, much of what our ancestors were required to do can be bought – we can buy abundant food, can buy shelter, and have no predators. But ours bodies need to be active, moving around. To compensate for this, doing daily physical activity is vital – both in terms of cardio and resistance training – lifting weights, doing pullups/pushups, etc.
A lot of people say “I don’t like carrots”, or “I don’t like eating vegetables” or “I don’t like going to the gym, it’s boring”. Does this mean you shouldn’t ever eat them? No. Just as exercise in modern day is necessary for us to be healthy, eating vegetables is necessary to be healthy. While food is abundant today, and tasty, it is killing us. Eating vegetables that may not taste as good as a bag of candy, a processed hamburger and bun, it is vital to our health, and therefore should be eaten regularly. It is a bit tough to see, but consuming things that you may not feel like is important, and encouraged.
People today have a hard time simply sitting and doing nothing. Feeling bored. In a modern world full of constant stimulation of our devices, TV’s, radios, and music, simply not listening or watching or staring at anything is vital. Just as running when you don’t want to, eating vegetables that you may not like the taste of, and studying English as a child even though you didn’t want to is important to the quality of a healthy life, sitting in modern day and feeling bored even if you don’t want to is vital to the human mind. The mind needs time to reflect, process, and be aware of simply the present moment. Most people today have a hard time sitting for 10 minutes doing nothing. Try it, do a 10-20 minute meditation session and see how it feels. Boring, right?
The overarching point is that in order to live a good life – one that is healthy, clear minded, energetic, motivated, and aware – we need to often be doing things that we may not want to do. The world we live in is far from what we evolved in, so we need to compensate accordingly. The rise of gyms, meditation apps, and diet plans is a clear indicator of the growing number of people aware that simply living in the modern world without compensating for what we’ve lost is killing us. It’s killing our bodies, our souls, our minds. But there is a solution – understand what the human body/mind needs and give it that.
The human body/mind needs vegetables, daily activity, daily boredom, close and caring relationships, and creativity. Just as people feel better when they’re immersed in a hobby or creating something, society needs more people creating and solving problems. Your tribe needs you to contribute – contribute to the greater good, something beyond simply satisfying yourself. Life isn’t about simply doing what you want – it’s about helping people who are less fortunate, creating and solving problems in your circle or beyond, learning and sharing wisdom along the way, and contributing to society. Instead of thinking what to put on your resume, think how you can use your unique mind and perspective to contribute and make the world a slightly better place than when you arrived on it.
Patrick
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