"You can grow up to be whatever you want!"
AND HE STARTS MONOLOGUING!!!
...Composed by Kevin Bolland
Have you ever caught yourself making a statement that, for some reason, just doesn't seem logical when you think about it twice?
I mean, how many times do I have to ask myself the same question in the form of a statement?
How long will I keep making myself suffer through my own expectations of how life, work, and community "should be"....
ITS EXHAUSTING!!!
Image by www_slon_pics from Pixabay
Have you said, "I'm Bored!" - it's likely because nothing is easy to learn anymore, and everything is crafted and presented in such an appealing and "clickbaity" kinda way that distraction is the natural order now.
So much of our lives have been spent learning in school and in every day life, but in all honesty, very few people ever really get super deep. Every subject that has ever crossed your mind has been studied, likely, for many lifetimes before you just thought about it. Everything you "learn" or "study" is likely a re-learning of something someone once knew long before. Otherwise, to me, it's a "scientific pursuit of novel and crafted and interesting and thought-provoking and fascinating idea".
In fact, learning is how we make life easier. Why be stuck in a traditional, boring, or unfulfilling role, when, in 10 years, everything we know WILL BE different?
Don't think of boredom as disinterest or laziness. Think of it as a desire to see what comes next!
Have you caught yourself saying, "I'm so overwhelmed" - because it seems like society both wants, and NEEDS us to pick, stick to, and master, every discipline that has ever been conceived just for an entry level position. (think every work from home position on the market, and their preferred communication system, billing system, CRM, you name it)
Honestly, for me, I usually experience both boredom and overwhelm at the same time..
I'm so bored with being so overwhelmed with so many complicated choices, news stories, cultural shifts in disposition, and hidden opportunity costs that can LITERALLY cost peoples lives.
Opportunity costs are part of the fabric of society, but no one really talks about them.
Photo by Jasmin Sessler on Unsplash
I'm talking about the idea of relying on many types of consumer goods, rather than learning how nature works, the natural way (for instance, community gardens vs. plastic single use packages, or having a backpack or purse for everything of every size)
I believe there is opportunity cost involved there. When things get rough, we need to know how to operate and survive.
Humbly, I believe that this is only really possible with a sufficient LOCAL economy that can support those living LOCALLY without being so reliant upon so many unsustainable things...
I'm guilty as sin though. I've got an internet based business, and I've lived in a tech centered world for many years.
Of course I'm guilty. I have been baited into an exponential increases in technological capacities in machines that are shipped thousands of miles at the direct expense of communities and people who remain unseen and unheard....
I've learned that it's not necessarily my "fault" but it is still my responsibility to be aware of my impact and make (hopefully) "smarter and more educated" choices about my life and how I live it. Often, technology upgrades over time cost us in ways we never imagined.
Have you ever said to yourself or someone else,
"I hate my job" - because of "corporate" structure, and "democratic" processes that you are expected to have a built in knowledge of, and inherent awareness of a businesses preferred "SOP".
In my opinion, and based on what I have seen, experienced, and learned from what seems like countless college classes, and supposedly "professional" business environments, no one gets a real shot unless they know the right person and are in the right place at the right time. If you try to "climb the ladder, pay your dues, and suck it up", you'll still be on "a rung below someone else" literally forever. Someone young, smart, and bored is going to automate your entire job in most circumstances.
Either find a comfortable place to climb to, and then stop trying so hard to outdo everyone else in the same room,
Or,
Learn where people are trying to climb to and then lower a rope or build a better ladder to help others along the way there. Supporting the local system and family should come before leaching off the entire system at their expense.
From my direct experience, "promotions" are often (always*) based on politics, and not performance, or even capabilities most of the time. I've seen many incoherent and arrogant and selfish and sick people step on hard working people to gain power.
But hey, a company has to adhere to its "ESG" goals and "values", right?
"Either walk on that thin line between us and yourself, or perish."
The customer is always right, and this is an "inclusive environment", (just not inclusive of you or your opinions or experiences or feelings. Those are "unprofessional and don't belong here")
Psh-nuDUHHHH!
Of course they value their bottom line more than their workforce. Only those with relationships matter. Otherwise, if you ask me, I think much of the corporate world was built on the idea of finding the line between their own needs and the people's needs. Not just "providing a good product" like the good ol' days.
Alas, I feel like I've heard the message both audibly and subliminally so many times from birth 'til now that I'm wired to be a pessimistic optimist.
I can see what's possible if we cooperate and support each other... but I can also see that's likely not gonna happen.
"Find a career you love, and you'll never work a day in your life" - If only my career loved me back.... The real "work" comes not from the job, but from trying to find a place that'll provide the tools to succeed, and keep fulfilling work flowing in the first place.
Truthfully, I feel like the mental anguish of unlearning cultural expectations over the last 10 years has been the REAL work for many of us.
"It cant happen fast enough!" - In the big cities of the United States, we're conditioned to get everything we need, pretty much within a maximum of a day or two (did you know the average grocery store carries something like 30,000 products? and apparently almost 40% of it goes to waste because of our cultural conditioning, single-use plastics, and the lack of proper education about the full uses of many types of foods).
When I have ideas about things like this, I feel anguish because of the question "how do we implement solutions to this problem FAST?"
WE DEFINITELY DONT HAVE TIME TO DEAL WITH CORPORATE BEUROCRACY!
We have the technology to solve the problem. But implementing it will take forever because of culturally rooted thinking, contracts, lawsuits, and other shenanigans that shake the cage simply because... We need a system that bypasses what dumb and uneducated people are concerned about, and makes impactful change happen so that sustainability in food, water, energy, and shelter can be achieved.
Photo by Armand Khoury on Unsplash
You want to solve population growth problems? Make the world a secure place to live first through the sustainable development of food, water, and energy sources. THEN we can focus on other stuff.
"Entry level job, 2-3 years experience required" I have 5+ years of direct work experience and a bachelors degree in a related field! But since I don't know multiple coding languages, computer programs, and CRM databases, I am unqualified to work in the natural resources industry...
Suffice it to say, they didn't call me back... In fact, seems pretty much no one does.
The struggle is real.
Except it's not now, because it's all digital, and the right pieces of code could probably automate almost any- entire job at this point.... given enough time and money.
See, back to opportunity cost. It's basically the reason I can't take action. I'd be spending my time working on something someone already solved, in a way that's inefficient, with technology that's out of date. It's because struggle is built into the experience.
It seems like, every time someone tries to build something that would make "real" change, they get personally, mentally, or spiritually damaged in some way (I know I'm not alone).
That's where this website comes from. A need to be myself. A need to say and learn what I want. This is my focus. Not a corporations systematic POS (I don't mean Point of Sale btw.)
These questions and this thought process irks my whole existence to the core sometimes, but it also serves as the fire and motivation that drives me to force it.
I guess I don't really care how much "work" it takes to write and research and learn. I care about how much it takes to convince other people of the actual, factual, literal, and unswayable truth that we need to be more sustainable in our own mind first.
However, maybe the mental confusion and anguish I feel is a result of my education and my ever increasing awareness of my privilege; and perhaps the lack of that same privilege even next door to me. You don't need to fly around the world to see disparity.
I'm also quite sure that it has something to do with the fact that perceived value and actual value are very different, and can be even more different depending on location and environmental setting. (water before vs. after a hike in the hot desert. P.S. bring it with you....)
I think that I have learned that society, and culture, and news, and social media, and paychecks, and bonuses, and benefits all tell us that we should want more and that we can "work hard" and achieve it. I personally disagree. Now it's about finding what you're good at and helping someone be better, or live better without necessarily needing "more" stuff. We need to learn that "more" can be devastating to us.
It's so hard to find a balance in life between anything when the bell curve of possibilities for your life and mine range from-
"ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE IF YOU PUT YOUR MIND TO IT!"
to
"YOU HAVE A BALANCE OF - $47.19, PAY NOW OR FACE COLLECTIONS"
Where has the middle of the road gone?
Where did the middle class go?
Where did the modest, peaceful, local lifestyle go?
and most of all,
Why is it so much to ask to want to live small and be responsible with my life? I'm not trying to break the law, I just want to raise a chicken. NOPE.
YOU JUST GOT SERVED. FINED. CEASE AND DESIST. PENALTY FEES. EVICTION NOTICES. it goes on.. All for a chicken coop or a vegetable garden or a tiny home in the community open space that no one uses.
I feel like I'm looked down on because I can't afford to pay for the "modern" lifestyle in a 2,000 SF home in Orange County CA. I can't afford every insurance plan and every restaurant and every subscription service any more than I can afford the rent due to the demand being out of control for obvious reasons. If space were used in a smart way though, this community would be lively, beautiful, more populated, but less traffic ridden, and more bike friendly and less crime impacted... Lifestyle shouldn't be forced by municipalities and companies, but facilitated by locals.
If things were actually built on "freedom" that "America was built on", I believe that communities would be closer and there would be more love between people.
Instead, I think that politics has turned us on one another. Strife and convenience has become our drug of choice.
However, I see change coming. It has to.
Change is so fundamentally important to the web of society, that I think in 65 years, we're going to realize how dumb we all were back in the early 2000's for thinking people would ever want to work in an office 30 miles away from home in traffic.
-Kevin Bolland