Pendulum-ing
Often, we overthink our every move and finally hang onto impulse. Overloaded with choices, information and perfectionism, can we think less and act more, especially in tumultuous times, after all?
The day starts with picking up the phone and checking what time it is. A slew of notifications, news of layoffs, bustling work groups, more information overload as we scroll another social media. Second-guessing our life, looking out for some inspiration, surviving on the adrenaline of reassurance. Our catharsis is sharing the difficulties of life, making ourselves believe someone has it worse.
We are living in a pendulum of entitlement or bearing with something, in fear of having nothing. What have we become — privileged, confused or simply stranded? We may have a Eureka moment at one point, and an emotional meltdown crashing all self-confidence on the other.
Gen-Z is ridiculed for their slang, boundaries, heightened self-awareness and lesser bookish knowledge. A generation of avocados and Starbucks, they are scared to think long-term — be it a house, a job or a relationship. You may accept this or deny it. I’m still pendulum-ing.
Yes, they might be in a bubble of their own head, but they are quietly (or loudly) rebelling against conventions.
Do we know our true calling? Do we know the meaning of happiness? If a book could answer these, it would go out of stock.
No one path is safe. The career choices we thought were safe, are vulnerable too. Tech isn’t a safe ticket, you need more than a command on language to make a cut in communications, and you stand a chance to be outsmarted by AI.
What next?
Businesses and individuals are capitalising on this confusion, advertising and hammering ads at the cost of our time or money, or both.
There’s a solution to every problem and problem to every solution — everything’s just a search result away. And you may not even have to type it — an Instagram or Facebook ad has all your woes covered.
21st century was touted to be the Knowledge Economy, but it’s soon become an age of Information Overload. Surrounded with distractions — news, entertainment or constant messaging, we are navigating a day that doesn’t seem to end, or ends too soon with no actual work.
And what’s more, we now have Chat GPT to make our lives tougher — because we are too dependent on our devices. AI first chose music, then food and video recommendations, and now it’s gonna do our jobs for us — better than us.
God, I want to put my phone and laptop away! Gadgets scare me now.
ChatGPT will write better than me. Another painter may paint better than me. Another person may be a better worker than me. Another person may be a better partner than me.
Even if they are, do I stop living because someone’s life is better than mine?
What is life, if lived in Ifs and Buts, or full of fear to be safe from perils that our mind perceives? I remember the golden days of reading, and my mind goes back to this masterpiece by Rudyard Kipling — If.
If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,
And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:
If you can dream — and not make dreams your master;
If you can think — and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools:
If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: ‘Hold on!’
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with Kings — nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And — which is more — you’ll be a Man, my son!
Ah, a poem that could’ve been tricky in exams makes so much sense, as we sit in the exam of life everyday.
Beyond the countless voices, there’s a tiny voice that belongs to you. It won’t be right always, but it will be yours. And you’ll learn, you’ll always learn.
It all boils down to self-belief, because someone’s working for the praise. Someone’s showing up even when their mind is fooling them into rest.
Do the necessary. Don’t overthink the consequences.
And yes, incase you didn’t know — someone will always be better. But they won’t be you.
