I Am Not A Machine
A useful reminder for you to read today.
It’s Monday morning. Before I can even grab a cup of tea, I rub my eyes and pull my phone off the charger. I pick an article recommended by Medium and start to read. It’s often something like “How To Be Productive Everyday” or “Seven Steps To Peak Performance” or “How To Never Waste Time Again”. Sound familiar? We are all on a journey of continuous improvement, and these are the sort of articles that tend to do best on Medium because we all want to read them.
We want to find the magic steps to hack our own lives. To reclaim our true potential.
But nothing we read is all that new. It’s often well thought out, backed by research and interestingly put together. But the reason we keep reading is that we need constant reminders to pick ourselves up off the floor or out of bed and to keep moving forward.
But every so often I feel my brain is overly crammed with trying to be the optimal self that I can’t possibly succeed at doing it all. I think to myself, am I already not optimal enough to be breathing and having an opportunity to improve myself even just one percent? Yet we are constantly bombarded with information left right and center as if we are some sort of machine that can be programmed to perform.
I cannot optimize myself like a machine on a production line. I am human. Not a machine.
We all have unique limitations
I’d like to inspire you to respect your limitations and allow yourself to veer off the productivity bandwagon from time to time. Just like anything in life, it’s always about finding a balance. Just like Rome was not built in a day nor can you expect to be the best version of yourself in a day or week or maybe even a year.
If you suffer from anxiety or any other mental health constraints, respect that. You cannot expect to go-go-go every minute when you sometimes need time to deal with your mind. If you don’t accept that, it only leads to further problems down the road. You can only try your best. Nobody is the same.
You have inspiration within you
Sometimes the very inspiration you are looking for can be found within you. Interestingly, the word inspiration is a metaphorical extension of the word’s Latin root: inspirare, which means “to breathe or blow into.” There is a breath within you that you can always come to for clarity of intention and purpose. Only you can answer that for yourself. Whilst you may find inspiration in the leaders you admire and the content you consume, find time to return to yourself and follow your inner guidance.
Unlike a machine, you can breathe, think and feel.
The opportunity cost of slowing down
As an economics major, I often view things in terms of opportunity cost. The New Oxford American Dictionary defines it as “the loss of potential gain from other alternatives when one alternative is chosen.” If you watch two hours of television, you will not have written the article you could have published. The opportunity cost for me then is that I didn’t create content because I chose to veg in front of the tv. But say I watched something that inspired an article idea or that taught me about an area of study? There is no blanket rule saying we should not watch tv. Whilst productive people tend to optimize every hour of their day, it’s okay to take a break sometimes. We have been gifted with a conscious and subconscious mind and the beauty is that sometimes the best ideas are being formulated in the background whilst we perform something else.
It’s not productive to label everything as black or white. Remember, everything in moderation.
Use your judgement when discerning how to spend your time. Understand the difference between wasting time and taking a break. The former is counterproductive the latter is necessary. Especially if you create any sort of content or art. The creative process cannot be programmed. It ebbs and flows without any linearity. You have to live a little first to inspire your work.
Less is more
In many cases, less is more. Listening to a podcast on 2x or skimming a book every week is counterproductive if it’s for the sake of checking a box. We need to stop being done to be done. Instead, choose one book a month and take notes on the main points. The idea is to apply what you learn to your life. It’s okay to slow down. If you want to create an impact, being thoughtful takes you much farther than being fast.
So the next time you feel overwhelmed with information overload or just fatigued by doing too much, remember you are inherently capable and nobody is perfectly optimized. We are humans. Not machines.
