This weekend has been nice, but pretty hard work on my tired, old body. I am feeling the last few days now and my hands are sore from gripping the roller for so many hours at a time. Sometimes I wonder if it is worth all the pain, but I always come to the conclusion that yes, it is. This is pretty much how I seem to approach most things in life, where it is not only no pain no gain but, no pain and there probably isn't much value in it.
As I have said before, I work with people and help them identify and close gaps in their skillset and I am fortunate to work with some very skilled people. However, we all have gaps and often it is more productive to improve upon them than increase the skills that are already high as like with most things, there is a diminishing return on the resources required for improvement. High-level skill improvement is very resource hungry, whereas expenditure on narrowing gaps at the lower end is generally pretty cheap.
A lot of the gaps we have are in areas that we actually care about, it is just that they are not the primary skill of the group and often, skills that we don't want to do the work for, as they are either difficult or boring. If we can get by without them, why have them at all?
This is the difference between the average and the expert however, as the average limits themselves by not learning where it is uncomfortable and the expert improves their opportunity by actively looking for that discomfort. It is similar in a sense to having an investment mindset, except instead of risk exposure, it is pain exposure.
It is funny how "boredom" seems to be the ultimate pain for many these days, which could be a symptom of always having something to do by way of a screen filled with passive content. we all want to be entertained and we avoid boredom like the plague and instead entertain our mind waiting until we are no longer bored. Boredom is a gift - it gives us the reminder that we have the ability to be active agents in our experience, something many seem to have forgotten in this world - but then, how can we remember when we never give ourselves space to be bored?
Mental time and space is a resource, which is the reason that I am hoping that I will be able to generate some wealth and free up some for my future. Right now, a great deal of my mental resources go toward working in various ways that don't allow me the ability to invest into other areas. It isn't a complete loss though, as my work tends to be generative of ideas that I can use for example, to write on Hive and earn a little for my trouble.
Trouble is the wrong word, as I do not find Hive a trouble or uncomfortable, or painful - but it isn't easy either. I could make it easier on myself by writing different kind of content than I do, but that would take out a lot of the value I get from it, the time and space to think my thoughts. And likely, it would take out a fair bit of the value for some my audience as well.
Quite a few years ago I claimed some of my life back by stopping reading the news as I identified that pretty much any time I have spent there has offered me very little of practical value. News is made for general audiences, so if it is in there, it is built for the average. Kind of like those "business forum talks" where people go along to hear and cheer for a celebrity that is saying nothing of consequence, as everyone likes it. If everyone is comfortable and liking it, it means that it has already been accepted and is unlikely to be anything groundbreaking.
Discomfort is where the value is and perhaps mentally, pain might be the most valuable, as it means that the norms are being heavily challenged which can introduce "radical" thinking that could evolve into changed behavior. Radical isn't a dirty word and probably, many of us around the globe could do with a radical change in our mindset to improve the way we live.
I was thinking about this today a little while painting. How come, so many people are discontent with their position in life but believe that they are doing the right thing? I mean, we are all doing the best we can with what we have, but if we aren't getting the results we are looking for, shouldn't we be investigating alternative approaches?
And here is the problem with most skills, as we avoid the discomfort and we do not allow ourselves to even be bored enough to think. This means that we cannot discover alternative approaches to our lives as we do not actively seek anything that is outside of what we are comfortable with, which is our habits. It is those habits that have helped us get to where we are today - are you where you want to be?
This is where I meet a lot of people who want some kind of change in their lives, but are not willing "to risk" actually changing, as they are comfortable where they are. As said, this is like an a person who wants to be wealthy, but is unwilling to open themselves up to risk and invest resources into generating additional value. They might be happy working (like I was) for the value and complain loudly about how much is done and how little they are paid, but not actually do anything about it.
Just like building skills, no one can do it for you. No one is going to make you wealthy. Or at least, it is very, very unlikely and if it does happen, it will come through an inheritance of some kind - which means that "easy come, easy go" might be in play also. People who earn their wealth through work or risk seem to value it to a greater degree than those who have it handed to them by the work and risk on the backs of others.
I find life to be repetitive, where there are factors in play that have similar patterns to them - like skill development and investment opportunity. I wish I had seen the pattern earlier than I did, but better late than never, as they say - though when it comes to investing, the later one is, the lower the returns. Diminishing returns.
Taraz
[ Gen1: Hive ]