Path of Freedom

Last week I had a ton of work I needed to get done; I was absolutely swamped. Having no idea how I was going to get everything done, I knew that I would have to put in long hours over the weekend if I was to make some headway on my projects.

Then the weekend came and Freedom told me not to.

It was an interesting experience. I forgot about all of the work I had to do for that entire weekend, focusing only on myself and my own well-being. This greatly reduced my stress and fatigue, and as a result I went back to work on Monday and looking at my to-do list, which seemed to have been cut in half.

It wasn't actually cut in half, of course, because none of the work on it got done. However, being able to step out of the grind and re-engergize allowed me to dive in on Monday and complete tasks at record speeds, ultimately finishing more work on Monday and Tuesday than I probably would have completed if I had worked Sautrday, Sunday, Monday and Tuesday without that break.

Never forget how important time off can be, and listen to your body when it tells you it needs rest.

Personal And Professional Freedom

While I feel that I have made enormous strides towards happiness by utilizing Freedom in my person life, I have been lagging behind when it comes to applying Freedom to my professional life. I seem to be stuck in an old way of thinking where I focus too much on duty, obligation and self-discipline. This is confusing for me, because I used to hold self-discipline as one of my greatest traits. I still certainly see value in it, but the problem arises when this discipline directly clashes with my Freedom. On one hand, we have a trait that is highly valued in society and consistently delivers good results. On the other hand, we have a the virtue of Freedom, which I have proven time and time again brings me happiness.

I don't have an answer to this problem yet. In an ideal world, I would be able to drop any task that conflicts with Freedom and not worry about it. However, when the realities of survival such as work, paying bills, and graduating come into play, I find that I am obligated to do certain things I would rather not do. Theoretically, I could simply not do these things, but the consequences of not doing them would result in a loss of Freedom as well. It's sort of a lose-lose situation; one way or another, Freedom is restricted.

I suppose the true answer for this question is to ask for help, and see if some alternatives can be developed.