My Year of Sleep and Stagnation

in #psychology7 years ago (edited)

During my 'gap year' - what Australians call the year following school in which they travel the world instead of going to college - I proceeded to stay at home and spend most of my time sleeping.

I was able to successfully demonstrate to the world how to waste and make minimal use of your newly found free time (If anyone needs advice on how to do this I am available for over-the-phone consulting). Right now, almost 6 years later and looking back on that year I am able to see that the world we live in now doesn't really punish people for doing nothing.

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Humans (and almost everything on this planet) are designed to be put into an environment that is very harsh, and that is what's supposed to motivate them to do something. Everything needs to eat. Everything needs to learn how to survive. What happens in today's society if you become stagnant? Pretty much nothing. We're not going to die and in fact, we often get rewarded for it.

Steven Pinker, a renowned cognitive psychologist, says that our brain is still firing for a world that existed 75,000 years ago - this is why it is so hard to change because it makes the future uncertain; your brain is not a good translator of the current world we live. In the midst of our comfort, our mind is telling us "You've survived up to now, you don't need to change anything".

Our brain's primary aim is not to make us happy, it's to make us survive.

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Personally, I don't look back on that year with resentment and a feeling of wasted time. I don't really even think about it. What is important to me is if I am happy where I am, where I am going and the pace at which I am moving.

Just know that we live in the "Modern Jungle" where it is much more forgiving, allowing us to slip unconsciously into a state of ease without even realising. Become better at noticing when you have slipped in to this state, and do everything you possibly can do reverse it in order to create what Stephen Covey calls, an 'upward spiral'. The further you go without addressing this, the harder it is to reverse!

Thank you for reading!

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Every day we must wake up with the awareness that one day we are given a gift in the book of life. Knowing that we do not know what tomorrow will be, we must want to survive the day as best as we can. Then every day brings us new hope for a beautiful, better ... life

Thank you for your comment Stefan. I 100% agree that we must have the awareness to recognise each day as a unique gift! We never know what will happen :)

We here have no gap year, nor the money to travel around the world. Anyway, I also spent a lot of my life in the evil comfort zone. But also, I tasted what challenges look like when I crashed my just bought car away from home. I worked with incredibly high effort to settle the things and remain calm. And all that time I had to cope with enormous amounts of guilt and even self-loathing (I have underlying mild mental issues, yes). But I settled all and solved most of the things relatively quickly. This helped me learn the power of our brain and how it can handle ubiquitous stress waves coming from abrupt events like the said car crash.

Wow. Well done on getting back on track Miroslav. Amazing mental strength!

"if anyone needs advice on how to do this I am available for over-the-phone consulting"- haha, i wish i could say a "gap year" is a canadian thing as well but unfortunately its not ;( at least you have the self awareness of recognizing stagnancy and not slipping back in its state! Being able to look back with hindsight and create that upward spiral is value in itself :) i love self development and psychology, looking forward to reading your next posts!

Thank you @sharebear! You're exactly right. Even if in the moment we don't recognise it if we can look back and "review" the best thing we can do is learn from it and move forward.

Great to find someone else interested in self-development, as I don't think the community is all too big on steem! Thanks for the support and I've chucked you a follow :)

Likewise 🙌

Well, the journey has just begun! If you've wasted one year, no problem - just work harder from the second year onwards. The real reason why so many people are crippled isn't because they wasted their time, but rather because they were hung up on them having wasted their time and spend even more time to regret it!

It's as if as you've just only started a marathon race, and you started crying after the first 100 steps because you didn't start it the way you wanted it to be!

Agreed. So many people think "well i've messed it up now there is no point in trying anymore" which is completely wrong!

Really enjoyed reading this post as I am about to take a gap year. I have mad set plans that I cannot back out of for just this reason. I am very capable of doing exactly what you did and am gradually for the reminder your post gave me!

I am a firm believer of the phrase "don't cry over spilt milk" as there is no point spending thought and energy on what has gone wrong when you could be think about what could go right.

Very thought provoking post for me so thank you :)