In our current work and school environments, constant exertion is praised while any form of relaxation – regardless of how necessary it may be – is looked down upon. If one isn’t dedicating every moment of their waking lives to their jobs and classes, they’re a loafer, unworthy of being considered as important as their more assiduous counterparts. But this line of thinking from teachers and employers is completely misguided, and you shouldn’t let these warped perceptions affect how you live your life.
A worthwhile life isn’t created by the amount of money you have or what your GPA is. Certainly, one must have a decent income to live on and high enough grades to be able to find a good job, but beyond that, there isn’t much use for either. A worthwhile life is truly created from how you choose to live. If your life isn’t fulfilling to yourself, then what’s the point of it being fulfilling for other people?
So, if you’re tired, take a break. Do things with your time that you find rewarding. I know it’s much easier to talk that way instead of actually act that way, but just because such a lifestyle isn’t easy doesn’t mean that it isn’t worth it. Colleagues and bosses will look down on you, but at the end of the day, you will be enjoying your life and they won’t be enjoying theirs. Any sense of superiority that someone gets from overworking themselves is overshadowed by their loss of peace and happiness. So who cares if you’re looked down on? Who cares if you can’t be held up as an inspirational story for other students and employees to aspire to? You don’t exist to inspire other people, and you certainly don’t exist to make their lives easier.
It will take courage to break away from the societal expectation of constant work-study dedication. In the beginning, you’ll probably feel guilty or ashamed when you see how “unproductive” you’re being now versus in the past, and others will most likely do nothing to assuage these negative feelings. But that shame and guilt are byproducts of toxic work culture, a culture that has brainwashed its followers into thinking that it’s correct. Having been raised in these shackles from birth, of course, it will initially feel uncomfortable, even unnatural, to break away. Only until after you’ve freed yourself will you realize how necessary it was that you stepped away.
It’s also imperative to remember that productivity is a loaded term at its core. Its root is even the word “product”, implying that any result of productivity is only physical, never mental or emotional. In traditional productivity, the generation of knowledge, happiness, etc. isn’t valued; only your class scores, only the amount of hours you put in at work, only the amount of tangible “product” that you generate. It can never measure the nonphysical aspects of anything. And besides, it’s the nonphysical aspects that make life worth living.
It’s time that we as a society realize that spiritual prosperity is more important than physical. So, when someone remarks that you could be doing better in school or working harder at your job, tell them “so what?” At the end of your life, you won’t see your grades and your paycheck as what made your time gratifying. What you did outside of your work, what you did for the sake of yourself, is what you’ll truly cherish.