beyondsuperman.

Are you exhausted with life? With your job? Sensing that there are little or no end in this cycle of expectation?

Then maybe you’re alittle like me. Chasing shadows and rainbows. Unclear and misguided. Un sure if there’s even a finishing line.

This can stop. This can stop only if we stop cheating ourselves.

We’ve been programmed and we’ve been taught to constantly push the boundary every time we get closer to our initial target.Whatever happened to feeling satisfied and fulfilled with just simply… achieving?

We always seem to re-mark a new expectation, something higher, harder and tougher. When you find yourself in Maga, you start setting your eyes on summa. Top the class?, now go beat the cohort. Won a uni-case study challenge?, now join a national wide competiton. Got an internship?, good, start looking for another.

Aren’t we constantly extending this marathon, lengthening the race marker? When can we finally shower ourselves with the champagne of “satisfaction”?

In Singapore, I have always been taught to be competitive, to edge over others. Yes it brings a high level of satisfaction when you know you top the class, or top the cohort, but does it mean I have to be like this just to feel like i’m doing it right?

Do I really have to cheat on this marathon of life expectation? Do I?

There will always be someone else standing on the other side yelling the need to constantly challenge yourself. To break the bounds of stagnation, to ditch the old cocoon and evolve to a better self.

I am guilty of such a thinking and I am certainly guilty of preaching and encouraging everyone to hop onto this ever extending marathon. 

But your health, your love, your life, your friends, the other un-countable aspect of life are giving in willingly because you tell yourself there is always a need to evolve.  It is “expected”, it is “norm”, it is the only way to “succeed”.

I’m afraid. Because one day we will all burn out without even knowing why? Un-satisfied even though 10 years ago, we wouldn’t have ever expected to find ourselves in current position. Holding down a job, standing tall as a qualified accountant/lawyer, or having a car filled with noisy little you-s.

Maybe it’s time to seat back, breathe alittle, stop extending that marathon marker… and enjoy it like it is. Sit back and enjoy. Look beyond what counts in the resume. 

I’ve always been a true supporter of Social Sites and their ability to connect friends and bring them closer. Knowing the daily activities of even my most remote and distant friends. A peek into their life through the uploaded photos, understanding their thoughts through their comments, learning their style through the content they consume.

Yet hovering above this grand ideal of connectivity is a nagging feeling that perhaps I could have achieved so much more without this craving for bits of information, gossip and mindless content. I kept asking if I am missing other important aspect of life, if so, what is it? That questions has been begging for an answer for quite some time now.

Facebook/Twitter has become such a blackhole of my personal time and space, I am still rather surprised at my ability to manage these attention-demanding sites while maintaining a religious study routine (Ok, prior to moving to CMU).

I decided to stand for productivity,and stand up for some much needed time away from social sites.. and simply reflect.

Hence, Operation Blackout - 7 days of dis-connectivity. 

I will deactivate my social sites and will share my observation on the change in my behaviour, my thoughts, and highlight my withdrawal symptoms.

I know it will be a struggle to fight against the need for a distraction when things boring. The struggle has already began even though it’s been barely 1 hour. Maybe it will do me some good, maybe not….. maybe 7 days will stretch to a month, maybe not.

Entropy: First used to described the second thermal dynamic theory. A state where molecules are packed together… and once they start to disperse, it becomes a higher entropy object. A entropy always starts from a constant point and move to a higher state.

Definition: 

1) A measure of the disorder or randomness in a closed system.

2) A measure of the loss of information in a transmitted message.

3) Inevitable and steady deterioration of a system or society.

Application:

“We have to take control of the situation and deal with the issue before entropy sets in”

“The young bloods came in, with their vitality and their spirit and somewhat foolish naivety that shine down upon the minds of the olden men, revealing their weariness and their lost passion so validity now… and there the King thought to himself… “Now, we can finally cast out this entropy that have been plaguing our kingdom.”

Catharsis is a Greek word meaning “cleansing” or “purging”.

Catharsis is a term in dramatic art that describes the “emotional cleansing” sometimes depicted in a play as occurring for one or more of its characters, as well as the same phenomenon as (an intended) part of the audience’s experience.

Usage:

“In his twisted and vile rationality, he found catharsis in the blood bath of his latest victim.”

“With the tears still streaming down her face, she let out what will be her catharsis, with a deafening scream to shut out the sorrow forever.”