There’s a fine line of when to take a breath and when to move forward. We live in a continual state of motion and we live with an ever-expanding need for content, regardless if we’re producing or consuming. At the same time, the monetary and… I’d argue even intellectual value for such things is plummeting, because… well, we’re starting to figure out that we all have the innate ability to entertain. Make no mistake, this world is full of entertainment. If everyone stopped creating, we’d never run out of things to be entertained by. Also, obviously, these things are becoming cheaper and less difficult to produce, and can now reach a global audience.
*That doesn’t mean ideas aren’t worth pursuing, whether it involves money or not, it’s just a frame of reference.
But, when do you take a breath? When do you take your finger off the pulsing beat? Don’t we need to be on at all times of the day? Well… yes and no. A channel can plink into darkness with the blink of an eye if it posts too little, too slow. Yet, even so, few have the heat, the passion, the ever-burning flame to endure and keep their fame.
The motivating factor for most, under the umbrella of entertainment, can be summed up to at least one of these concepts: wealth, comfort, and power. Truthfully, they’re all the same. Comfort is power: to be pleased where you are will help avoid the need for constant wealth. As for wealth, very few things cost as much as they do, prices arbitrarily go up more often than not, to maintain this illusion. There are plenty of materials as there are plenty of fans as there is plenty of food as we live in a world full of plentiful lands, though it isn’t marketed as such. The question is: what is enough for you?
When you’ve figured that out, I’d suggest taking a break before you get there. All you need to do is give notice and the care will be there. I get it, sometimes, things move so fast that you don’t realize that you’ve “had enough.” Stop then, not for all time. There are no dead ends. Remember, we live in a rich world, full of resources. There is only abundance.
As such, there is always something waiting, something coming. There is always a next. Sometimes, turns are taken: opportunities are given as opportunities are taken. We consume as we produce, we produce as we consume, ad infinitum.
My advice when feeling overwhelmed and needing to stop on a catastrophic level:
1- (quoting from Daniel Tiger) Stop, take a deep breath, and count to ten (maybe that ten is minutes, days, weeks, years, whatever you need/can afford).
2- Look around at where you are, what you’ve achieved. Be honest with yourself and be impressed. Yes, that’s right, you’re pretty fucking cool. Truth. That’s where you are even if you don’t do anything else with your life.
3- See a therapist and/or write a memoir (or the cliffnotes version). Heck, pay someone like me work with you on it (I need money and love hearing stories). It doesn’t matter if you plan to sell it (though sometimes its good to have something to work on while going through this process). The main point is to open up and then reflect in ways you haven’t, exploring common threads, thought processes, and what might help you get up and out of “enough,” in a clear, healthy way.
4- You’ve looked back at yourself, noice. Now look at others, those you’re impressed by. Ask yourself, what are they doing? Or have done. What makes them different? You’ll be able to tell which ones seem like you and which ones don’t. You should be able to find a soul-depriving “lack” of something. Whatever it is, there doesn’t need to be a judgment on having this lack. Reminder: it’s only there for your own entertainment. Congratulations Sherlock, you’ve got a mystery to unravel and, quite possibly, solve. Warning: this might open ye up to more discoveries. That’s okay, these should be easier to handle, more growth is good. It might also mean taking breaks more frequently to handle the newness coming your way.
5- Figure out some best practices (including breathing and taking breaks more often), and try getting back into the groove.
Please note: if you haven’t shown anyone anything and have ideas of fame and glory, it doesn’t matter to anyone else yet. Please, take a moment to focus on your health. Be honest with yourself though, if your project is taking an unplanned “forever,” again, congratulations Jessica Fletcher (check out my dated references, oh yeah), you’ve got a mystery to solve; an incredible lack of something. Maybe that lack turns out to be pleasure, as in the desire isn’t there, perhaps it never was. This isn’t always the case, but maybe you’ve grown in so many ways that what you’re working on no longer represents who you are or what you want to do. This can lead to feelings of regret, anguish, fear. Perhaps, the reason for doing the project now seems superficial and you’ll feel like a failure for stopping. Is finishing going to feel like success or some other type of failure that leaves a dry taste in your mouth? (Bleh)
What about that patience thing? Everything takes time, some less than others. The above steps work just as well for figuring out what might be blocking you from what you want. Perseverance is key but also blahblahblah.
*This is probably why we’re in the last throes of our financial system(s). We’ll forego most things for entertainment or prioritize one form of entertainment over another (ie: clothes, food, streaming services, governing organizations, etc.). The more these things become inherently free, there will be less of a desire to pay (or in most of our cases, overpay) for them. There will come a point of saturation as the desire to self-actualize and self-create will manifest the ability to make more things we rely on flexible, adaptable, customizable, and, ultimately, “less controlled” (we’re advancing to the next step in technology, your super-phone may not be a physical phone/computer/camera in the future, food may not be necessary, and energy/travel might be accessed special mind powers, who knows?).
Life in the Jon 