Life isn’t just a sequence of waiting for things to be done

Originally posted: 03 December 2018

I wanted to devote this blog post to mental health… something that is often overlooked in the high-stress male-dominated world of I.T., where it feels like it’s more important that the servers are healthy than the admins are.

I wanted to highlight one quote that is famous, and one monologue that should be.

Comparison is the thief of joy.
- Theodore Roosevelt

Comparing your life to others will rob your own life of its joy.

In a world connected by social media, we see more of our social circles lives than ever before, but we see such a slim slice of it.

People don’t post a photo to Instagram of them upset at their partner after an argument, they don’t tweet that their car’s window broke, and they don’t share on Facebook that they made a mistake at work and got reprimanded for it.

When we go online and see our friends and idols living seemingly perfect smooth lives, and compare them against ours, with its bumps and rough edges… our life gets stolen of its joy.

Instead, try to remember you aren’t seeing the full thing, try to remember you can’t see what is happening behind the camera, or beside the keyboard.

Invocation for Beginnings - Ze Frank

The following is a few excerpts from a monologue from a vlogger and content creator called Ze Frank when he was starting his second series of video blogs.

He calls it an Invocation for Beginnings.  A call to arms to start something you have been putting off.

While the whole thing is quite long, and I implore you to go watch it I’m going to paraphrase some of the more important sections that I keep coming back to when I need to remind myself that I am human, just like everyone else:

Let me realize that my past failures at follow-through are no indication of my future performance. They’re just healthy little fires that are going to warm up my ass.

Let me think about the people who I care about the most, and how when they fail or disappoint me… I still love them, I still give them chances, and I still see the best in them. Let me extend that generosity to myself.

Let me not be so vain to think that I’m the sole author of my victories and a victim of my defeats.

Let me remember that the unintended meaning that people project onto what I do is neither my fault or something I can take credit for.

There is no need to sharpen my pencils anymore. My pencils are sharp enough. Even the dull ones will make a mark.

Life isn’t just a sequence of waiting for things to be done.