Why should you have to lie to take a day off of work?
Have you ever thought about this? Some folks, who are in the great position of having a job they love, who are self-employed, or who have a good relationship with their boss can say:
You know what? Today, I need a mental health day. Today, I need to go down to the riverside, or to the ocean, or to the local café, and JUST SPACE OUT. Just rest. Write. Read. Whatever. I need to recharge and reevaluate, so when I step back into work, I can do so with gusto, and with a fresh spirit of problem-solving enthusiasm.
Unfortunately, most people can't say things like this. Have you ever thought about how insulting and pathetic that is?
Insulting to what? one might ask. Well Jesus. insulting to your humanity.
I mean, is this civilization? Here in Japan there is actually a term for "death from overwork," and it is not a joke. It is a real problem here. This problem though, if evaluated honestly, is not exclusive to any one modern, first world culture.
There is this pressure that most everyone feels, and I call it the "hamster wheel."
The nature of the pressure is basically this:
You don't have enough time! Hurry! Pay money so your power isn't shut off! Hurry! More papers! You need a permit! Watch movies and drink beer! Go to school every day and learn nothing! It is crucially important for you to do this breathtakingly unimportant job! Hurry!
Now, I am no way against hard work (or beer. Movies kind of suck. J.D. Salinger was right). Actually, the only time I really feel happy is when I am "hustling from the heart" (new gangsta rap love song compilation title?) and deep into research, writing, or some other discovery/problem-solving process. I love physical labor, too. ANYTHING. As long as it has a meaning for me and I desire to do it, naturally and sans coercion or threats thereof.
The form this gratifying exertion takes is different for everyone. The word is "passion."
Some people like planting gardens. Others love mathematics and engineering. Still others are musicians. Yet others are philosophers. Doctors. Poets. Bakers. Street sweepers. I doesn't matter. If you are working from your heart and from a place of purpose and passion, then there really is no hamster wheel.
The beauty of the free market is that, in their most happy state, NOBODY IS "LAZY." Needs would be met and new and innovative solutions supplied "effortlessly" and beautifully.
As it stands now, however, many of us cannot seem to get out of the wheel. We have children to support. Families. Bills. Taxes. Pay or die, fuckhead. And we call this pay-or-be-caged/die system known as taxation "civilized."
Theft is civilized. ("taxes")
Murder is acceptable. ("war")
Run on the Hamster wheel. ("work")
Feed that machine.
Ignore the miracle that is your life.
Everybody must "chip in."
NO. To the junkyard with the hamster wheel. Nobody can scrap it but you, and nobody but you knows how it is to be done in your life. There are practical things to consider, but ultimately, what is more practical than living YOUR LIFE in a way that it can be truly, fully, and deeply ENJOYED in your brief time on this planet?
Shuffling some papers around for some fucking guy no one will remember in 50 years and never seeing your kids or wife, working "overtime," just to pay a bunch of thugs called "the state" seems just about impractical as it gets, if your end game is to make a difference, leave a legacy, or simply to find happiness for yourself and help others.
This is why building our tribes is so important. Find your community. Find your tribe. If it is not there, build it.
I hope blockchain technology and the ever widening gap between centralized models and decentralized models will paint us a clear picture of what is at stake. It is inevitable. At the end, there are two types of people:
Those who love freedom for themselves enough to make changes to bring it about, and those who are too afraid, and so accept that the hamster wheel is "just how it is."
Nah. Fuck "just how it is." We are human, and I intend to live as such.
A friend of mine recently said to me that, if you are afraid to be yourself, there is a reason for that. You should find that reason. Maybe it is your boss? What will he/she think of you? Maybe, it is religious or cultural programming. Whatever it is, he said, you should find the reason. Maybe you need to quit your job. Maybe you need to talk with someone. The point is, it's nothing to run from or feel guilty or afraid about. It is simply a problem to be solved on your path. Evolution. Self-development. And self-development is all there is. Self-interest is beautiful. To you altruists out there who will say this is not true, try helping others when you are unhappy inside. It just won't work.
~KafkA
Graham Smith is a Voluntaryist activist, creator, and peaceful parent residing in Niigata City, Japan. Graham runs the "Voluntary Japan" online initiative with a presence here on Steem, as well as Facebook and Twitter. (Hit me up so I can stop talking about myself in the third person!)
My husband's place of work (and formerly mine) in a typical American corporation requires that you put in for time off. His supervisor will treat that submission like you're asking for permission if you let him. I find that dehumanizing in the extreme. How dare anyone behave like YOUR time belongs to them! But I also see this dynamic on a bigger scale. A lot of the way our society is structured IS dehumanizing. By design or by accident, it's a soul crushing construct to try to live within, and we see the effects not only in tragic suicides, but also in chronic obesity, depression, and general dissatisfaction with what we do for a living and how we live our lives. The need to have mental health days is more needful than ever, yet it seems to me that the opportunity to take them is getting narrower, especially for those who are too shy to insist. It's an important discussion. All I can hope for is that if folks like us keep shouting from the sidelines (Hey, over here! There's a better way!), someone will step off of the hamster wheel for a moment and look our way. :D
Resteeming this.
I couldn't have said it better. Thank you.
This is why you shouldn't ever work for a corporate.
Smash them :)
You just got yourself a follower.
Awesome! Thanks! Was already following you btw.
Loved the bit 'being afraid to be yourself ... simply a problem to be solved on your path'.
I feel a pathological resistance to doing anything I'm obliged to do, to the point where it really made it hard for me to put ANY events or commitments on my calendar. Now I do a job where I decide exactly when I work, what I do, and no-one is overseeing me. If I want to I can send out a cancellation there and then on the spot [it would mess folk around so I generally don't], but I love my job enough that even when I feel a bit reluctant I'm so entirely absorbed and fascinated and in the flow within minutes of starting work ... I know I can get over those moments when I'd rather be doing something else.
I'd love it even better if I could down tools whenever I felt like it. That would be ideal. [Indeed, I actually could, but it would not be particularly useful to me]. Knowing I have this freedom enables me to have a full diary and be happy about it. :-)
I shared your last paragraph out to my facebook page. I reckon a few more people need to realise that being afraid to be yourself is just a question of working out what it's about and just part of rejigging your environment rather than yourself. That seems so much more surmountable .. And it IS.
Well said, @sallylloyd. Thanks for this.
Pleasure
Becoming free and living the life we want and are meant to is something we all have to do for ourselves and it's the only way to ever be truly happy.
Yes get off of that wobbly wheel!
This is so true! People need to find out what they're passionate about, pursue it, and they'll never work a day in their life. They assume they have to stay in their dead-end job because that's what the world tells them. The sooner they realize that all the power is within them, the sooner they'll be free.
Great article. I feel like you went inside my mind and pulled out everything I think every single day. It's so expensive to live, there's really not a lot of choice. Less intelligent people than I have figured a way out of the hamster wheel, or intelligent people than I have died in the hamster will. Life keeps on movie...gotta find a way to throw a wrench in the wheel and change it up..goes fast. Nicely written
Thanks. I hear you!
@kafkanarchy84 You are my favorite writer on steemit. Break the wheel. First step for me was to leave 9-5 and do internet marketing and i gained freedom of movement. Next step is freedom of mind. I'm sick of stuffing products down people's throat. I will align my deeds with my heart, and reside here from now on. I really hope this is what can accommodate my modest financial needs. I am not stuck in consumers world, and i need only basics. And my free time finally for my true self.
Thanks for that, @alliesin, and Godspeed on your journey!
Please follow me on https://steemit.com@bossy
I don't think I ever have had to lie to take a day off. I just say "I need to take a day off of work." Maybe if there was some important project, there might be a reason. But, for most every day jobs, there shouldn't be a need to give a reason.
Agree 100%.
Great post there, really enjoyed
The system we have allows us no time for our true freedom and the things we want to achieve, untill this changes none of us will really have our own true freedom....we must find what we want and change the work enviroment where in to be more positive and happy
We can achieve our goals long term but need to step outside of the comfort zone, only you can do that and make these changes to reach your ultimate freedom
upvoted and following
Rod @livethedream0208 check me out
That Bukowski quote is too funny! I'm going to have to use that. Thanks for sharing this post! It is so true. I was just talking about the joys of being self-employed today. Following you!
It is truly fucked we can't just have mental health days. I managed to finally "legally " obtain them by getting paperwork written up on my mental illness (which would improve if I get more damn mental health days). I had to go the intermittent fmla route to get the mental health days i needed /need. It was kind of demoralizing honestly. Because the way stuff has to be worded on the fmla paperwork isn't flattering. But, what ever, i did it and now i can take up to four mental health days a month.
Good for you, and yeah, it is demoralizing, isn't it. But hey, fuck their wording, you did what you needed to do for you and your own happiness, and I applaud you for that.
Thanks, means a lot ♡
Great advice, I must say that I am happy that I have a boss who I can tell I need a mental health day and it isn't a big deal.
That is great to hear!
Oh my god yes! Self development and self interest, like you said, are beautiful things and it's sad that we live in a such a state where we make it so difficult to focus fully on those things. I think if we lived in societies where survival wasn't our main goal in life and we weren't so involved in the "rat race" we would be so much more happy and advanced as a civilization. The creativity and innovations would be off the charts! I hope we can get there some day.
there are a lot of reasons to be on hamster wheels,..... but we all have ONE great reason to escape from : our lives.
My happy life is THE ONE reason to leave them
I mean... maybe it's the overwhelming debt that many of us in America get tricked into as a consequence of the dumbing down of education once it was firmly in federal control.
Just speaking personally, but until I actually bought bitcoin and, a month later found Steemit, I didn't actually see a way out of the debt without ruining a co-signer. It's a quite literal prison, and nothing to feel ashamed about.
This is the world, people get tricked, the innocent get hurt. But you're absolutely right, and there's still action you can take from behind enemy lines.
I'm trying to be living proof of that, I'll keep you updated ;)
Please do. And man, I share your sentiments about Steem and crypto much likely more than you know! Godspeed, fellow rebel pioneer!
This is one beautiful metaphor
I once has a job, which I despised by it earned alright money to live off. I hated it. Long gruelling hours. Tired, stressed, depressed. I'm glad that I left and got a new job which I somewhat enjoy
Glad to hear this, @arckrai. We just gotta keep moving upward, right?
Great article! Upvoted 🌻 I'm in the process of putting together bits and pieces to ensure I don't fall into the trap of a 9-5 life. There as so many opportunities if only we use our creativity.
Great stuff as always and some good advice. Great to see that Steemit is already helping at least some to jump off the hamster wheel. I'm in the happy position of working for myself and I'd certainly recommend it.
Excellent to hear. What do you do, if I may ask?
Myself and my brother started a little website in 2000 selling vacation rentals. We're not Air BnB but we chug happily along without having to worry too much about where our next meal is coming from. Neither of us has any particular talent, we just saw a gap and jumped in.
Great article. This is so true! You can follow my blog to know more about me @ika497
Excellent
Nicely written
Keep it up
You are full of good advice and common sense.
Yea I find it difficult to work the routine job, especially if it's for someone else. Like you said hopefully these new technology will help us out. Following, lets build that tribe!
Cheers. Let's do so.
Got to get out of the "Rat Race" I recommend reading, "Rich Dad, Poor Dad" for a new way of thinking..
Mister Kiyosaki lied a lot in that book. He imposed as expert, yet he didn't possess riches at time of writing. He became rich by bestselling this book, and is example of fake it until make it.
Really good post keep it up
thank you for sharing
This sounds just like my current situation. I was working with a communication company climbing cell towers and loved every minute of it. However I decided I needed to put my creativity to use and am now going to school for graphic design. To do this I left the job I love and now work in a warehouse where I loathe every minute of it.
Good post. It is a real problem in the world. It shouldn't be like this. Glad you wrote about this.
Excellent post. So many people that I know that work for big corporations have vacation accumulated to the limit allowed and very little taken because they feel that they will get behind in the work load and also, that it might look bad to superiors. A sad state of affairs.
hey kafkanarchy84 loved ur article, take a look at mine you might like it https://steemit.com/nature/@whitedolphin/nature-wisdom-a-message-from-the-orang-utans
This post was so relevant to my life! New on steemit and I'm liking what I'm seeing already. Followed!
I love that you talked about finding the reason that you feel you can't be yourself. This is something I have recently done and honestly I've never felt more at peace and happy with myself! Life's too short to pretend to be something you're not :)
"The beauty of the free market is that, in their most happy state, NOBODY IS "LAZY"."
I love that! Life is pretty simple when you get right down to it and manage to see past (or through) your limiting beliefs and mental fog: we are here to engage life and live with purpose and forward motion, and we know we are on track when we feel joy and freedom. And when we are truly happy, we are of immense benefit to ourselves and others.
I have found that the biggest breakthroughs in my life came when I followed my emotional guidance and dumped the lucrative, but toxic job, or a hot, but toxic girlfriend, and chose uncertainty or solitude or struggle...all the things that the "average Joe" seems to run away from.
Life can be amazing, but a person has to declare a personal secession from the mental totalitarianism and conformity of the world to be able to experience to freedom and joy that is available to all of us.
We are the guard and the prisoner. It's time to quit both roles!
Thx for the awesome post!
Awesome article filled with thought provoking ideas, the concept you illustrate is the very basis of all anarchic thought, the idea of being controlled. The sound mind yearns for what's beyond, but solutions must be practical, and action must be made with haste, for this society cannot sustain itself for much longer. For one to think freely, the environment must be structured to catalyze freedom of thought and action. The first step would be to collapse the need for currency on a societal scale.
Sustainable or "off-the grid" communities may be a great solution if exectuted in a practical manner. Interest groups can propose these ideas to progressive local governments in any country who are willing to listen. These governments can support the planning of new cities/towns built to sustain itself, or convert old cities/towns to sustainable status. Though convincing any local or federal instituion in the US may be difficult seeing as any progressive idea that threatens profiablility, regardless of it's benefit to society, would be met with rejection or even hostility.
Cryptocurrencies are great, but I don't believe they will change the level of dependency our society has on the concept of currency. Our basic needs must be met without the presence of currency. You mention taxes, war, and involuntary work as prominent issues in today's society. Decreasing or eliminating our dependency on currency and forming close geographic or digital communities can render the aformentied issues virtually resolved. I believe "off the grid" communities are a practical solution, but the issue stands to be able to present the solution to the public in an enticing manner, and to use the power of the internet to brainstorm other solutions for the future of the world. Thank you for the article. Peace.
Man, wouldn`t it be great if we could make Steem so popular and easy to use that every and any artist really could come here and get real community engagement not only payment?
Thank you ! This article "hits the nail on the head" for me . The only thing that I find not true in my experience is " To you altruists out there who will say this is not true, try helping others when you are unhappy inside. It just won't work." You see , as a recovering alcoholic , helping others when I'm not feeling good inside is the solution for me . It gets me out of self . That aside , I can relate to this article whole heartedly.
Congratulations @kafkanarchy84
You took 64 place in my Top 100 of posts