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Foreword
Now,
I’d like to preface by saying that I’m no expert in productivity; I also enjoy spending my evenings browsing through the same few videos, looking for something to keep my mind off the 12-page research essay due next week. Yet, it’s this intrusive feeling whispering in the back of your head something along the lines of ‘Oh, you could be out and about doing something more socially desirable, so you can feel better about yourself’ that scares you to do something even when you crave a break.
As much as I want to believe this is an uncommon experience, the hundreds, sometimes thousands of posts about ‘getting a higher grade in a certain course!’ or ‘optimizing your life to no end’ speak of a different reality. A reality that values the ends more than the means, so to speak.
WRESTLING WITH MY THOUGHTS ON WHAT SHOULD BE ‘ENOUGH’
That’s not to infer that they’re wrong; in a fast-paced, result-based society, you need to constantly be a better version of yourself, but when does “better” end? When you pass the class you so desperately need to or when you graduate? The constant fear of comparison or getting replaced while job-searching results in thousands throwing themselves at every opportunity related to career-building or self-improvement without fully understanding why these changes matter. I’ve found myself doing the same things — adopting new study habits or changing myself hour-by-hour — only to burn out in a few weeks. At the same time, it’s just as bad to get complacent in every misstep you take, praising yourself for doing the bare minimum when you can do so much more.
‘ENOUGH’ IS TOO ABSTRACT
As I spend semester after semester finding a good balance between doing too much and too little, I find it easier to avoid hyper-fixating on competitive self-improvement when I plan. Jotting down something once is a quick fix, but take a set amount of time to observe yourself, and you’re putting your energy into something that truly matters to you. For me, that was the month spent at home before the spring semester, when the only thing that mattered to me was what was in front of me: myself. Setting goals that felt honest to my own values, learning what those values meant to me, and recognizing what I lack only came from meditation on my current state of being, without others’ abstract measures of success.
To look out is to look within, and I think the treasure trove of success many seek lies in truths they’ve forgotten growing up and trying to fit into a mold that the general public expects from them. But this paradox only makes sense when you realize this: such is the beauty of cognition.
General Engineering, Class of 2027
If you found this blog post interesting, you may consider reading “The Pursuit” and “The Power of Being a Generalist.”