Reflections on a Life of Thinking Too Much!

”You just THINK too much!”

I was maybe 13 or 14 years old the first time I heard that.

I was in school and we were living in the south of Spain at the time and somebody was taking the trouble to make commentary on the fact that I didn't seem willing to just jump into doing things without even considering whether or not there would be consequences for the actions I took.

Well, I suppose — by that particular measure — that I've always thought too much.

I became aware of this particular problem again while I was in boarding school in the UK and it was pointed out to me once more that I "thought too much."

During my final year I remember sitting one Sunday morning in the prefects' common room watching TV while most of the other boys were off at Chapel, and I happened upon a Open University session about consequential thinking. It made perfect sense to me because I had always felt that if you did this one thing something else would happen.

Accordingly before you choose to do something you'd probably be well served by looking at what the potential outcomes of that action might be!

All of this is just a really long preamble to the fact that it's my impression that's not how the world generally works. From where I'm sitting, it seems like the vast majority of the world tends to leap before they look. And then — when they get all smashed to pieces as a result of their choices — they try to blame someone else for what happened.

Bottom line: you just didn't THINK did you?

In some senses, maybe that makes me "not very human." Maybe these feelings and thoughts are connected to my overall feeling mystified by the way a simple idea like "work" is a central part of the human existence, yet it feels like 95% of the human race will go to almost any lengths to avoid work, take breaks from work and generally not do work... rather than (ironically) "celebrating" it by doing their best and getting it done so they can leave and go play with impunity.

Instead, they "work" tirelessly at NOT working via a seemingly endless series of distractions, excuses and rationalizations for "not working."

I remember my early days of living and working in the US, and how it seemed like work actually consisted mainly of (A) taking a break or (B) planning when the next break was going to happen or (C) trying to get focused again after the last break. How the fluff can anyone expect to be even a tiny measure of productive, if all you're ever focused on is coming up with ways to not do what you're there to do? And how can you honestly sit around and be all butthurt and upset that "nothing got done" when you're actively expending most of your bandwidth on not doing anything?

In my mind, this pattern begs the two greater questions of (A) why we have made work so unpleasant that we feel compelled to construct elaborate systems and ruses to AVOID it... and (B) maybe the better question is when did we all become such little "Princes and Princesses" who are so precious we feel eternally entitled to just "play" all the time?

As someone who tends to be very firmly rooted in the "action A leads to consequence B" principle (hereunder "working leads to income which permits play") I really do find the whole thing thoroughly baffling.

What's more, there's a giant irony in the equation which is that I consider myself a quite a slacker, because I see my sole purpose of working as being an activity that "buys" me the ability to slack. I'm not industrious by nature, only by need.

From where I am sitting, the "eternally break-taking" are just trying to slack now and consequentially end up in a place of perpetual worry over the fact that they can never genuinely relax enough (and never take enough breaks) to not be worried about the work they are NOT getting done, and so the whole "avoiding work" actually ends up becoming utterly self-defeating...

As I said, I think too much about these things...

Once upon a time, I worked for a Fortune 500 IT company... and one of the things always being discussed was the "long work hours."

Bottom line though — and let's keep in mind that this was primarily my perspective — struck me as the fundamental truism that the complainers were "AT" work for 11 hours a day, but "DID" actual work for only 2-3 hours a day. And the whole conundrum could so easily have been resolved by simply going TO work and busting your butt for 5 hours a day and getting it done, and then going home.

Of course, lots of people have engaged in long arguments with me about such ideas that "If we did that, the company would just find MORE work for us to do."

Maybe that's true... which really brings us to one of our ills as a society, namely that we have created such a "time based" world, rather than a "task based" world... and the companies we work for are excessively focused on "hours worked" rather than "tasks completed."

As a human being — and as a highly sensitive person — this basic "nonsense" (again, just my opinion!) represented a substantial part of the reason why I eventually chose self-employment.

When self-employed, one of the key things we can do is work according to a "task oriented" system.

Of course, this can be an extremely challenging transition for someone who has spent years equating "working" with minutes ticking off on a clock, rather than "getting things done." When you're self-employed, they only thing that keeps you from starvation is getting things done. Watching endless YouTube videos of cats or discussing the path to enlightenment with a Facebook friend will not pay for your groceries!

But then again, maybe I'm just thinking too much, again...

Thanks for stopping by, and have a great Friday!

How about you? has anybody ever told you that you think too much? Do you think that's true? Or is it just a case of seeing the world through a different lens of perception? Leave a comment if you feel so inclined — share your experiences — be part of the conversation!

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Created at 2024.05.17 01:23 PDT
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