If there is anything this year has taught us, it’s that we all need to work on ourselves and constantly prove to ourselves and the world that we are indeed being productive. But where is this coming from? Is it a silent jab you feel whenever any of your Linkedin connections share a post about how they completed a course or an acquaintance that shared that they somehow mastered the art of cooking to a Jamie Oliver-esque standard on their Instagram stories?
We’re all in a rat race of our own and we are all faced with our own problems, shortcomings and challenges. Not being “complete” is what makes us human. The surge in self-help and motivational content on social media in recent months just narrates a disturbing trend: We are pushing each other to undervalue ourselves. In sports or in science, rivalries have helped the field thrive. Be it scientists going out of their ways to disprove another scientist’s hypothesis in order to gain a shred of recognition or the decade-long tale of Ronaldo and Messi reaching inhuman scoring statistics, rivalries and competition are healthy. The human race has come as far as we have today due to the fact that we push each other in some way, positive or negative.
The advent of social media was meant to help us stay connected despite geographical distances and share moments and experiences with one another. Sadly, just like any other human invention, it has been warped for alternate uses. Social media today has become a platform for the ignorant masses to preach how the Earth is flat and hurl abuses while hiding behind a facade. This brings us to the negative effect of this useful tool in our shed.
Most status updates or posts have turned into jabs at your mutuals to outdo them or make them feel little and worthless. This year has also seen us spend more time sitting at home, thus we spend more time surfing through the various apps on our phone, come across more such toxic content and torture ourselves significantly in the process.
The truth of the matter is, you can improve yourself, relax and feel more positive towards yourself altogether. The innate skeptic in us all might roll our eyes at the statement, but you don’t need to drive your insane in the pursuit of some form of perfection that others decide on. The simple truth is, you should FEEL better. Take exercising for example – we see our friends and pictures of other gym-goers who have their veins bursting out of their arms, screaming during reps in the gym and looking constantly sore and stiff, so we think pushing ourselves until we can’t without assistance is the right path to the body you desire, that is incorrect. You can work out, eat healthy and get stronger without much visible change due to your genetics or body chemistry, but that doesn’t mean you should not celebrate the strength and stamina you have gained through the journey.
Working from home has turned out to be a nightmare for us all as we feel we are LIVING AT WORK. Let’s change that up a bit?
- How about you allocate your day from the time you wake up, to the time you sleep, with designated hours to work, rest, eat, pursue a hobby and learn something new.
- Use your regular works hours with a blend of the current demand in your industry to set up a chunk of hours through the day to get your undivided attention focused on your work.
- Next, YOU decide what you present interest is, it could be learning to cook a new recipe, taking up a language, working out, learning to code, the possibilities are endless. Set something that interests you and stick to it for a couple of days or, even better, alternate two ventures every alternate day to keep your mind fresh to the challenge each day.
- Finally, take up a new hobby or re-visit an old one, like playing online games(here you can find some of the highest grossing games). There is no shame in having a hobby of any kind, the lockdown has given us an opportunity to conserve our energy from travelling to-and-from work each day, so you can now finally do something fun that you never had the time for because your adult life slowly chewed it up and spit it out.
Improving yourself is indeed a never-ending process, but there is no hurry. It’s your life and you decide the pace this marathon is run at. Never limit yourself either, it pays to have surface knowledge on topics that are not your primary field as well and there are tons of free material from Google academy, Hubspot and Coursera
that you could pace yourself through to learn something new that interests you.
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