Why You Should Go Back To Your Basics
You may have heard your physician (assuming he or she is a good one) tell you about the three basic demands that your body needs you to meet in order to maintain it in a healthy condition: sufficient rest, regular exercise and a nutritious diet. Sometimes, in seeking to meet these basic demands, modern humans have a tendency to overcomplicate the matter. No matter what fancy massage or aromatherapy session you take, nothing can replace the restorative powers of a good night’s sleep. No matter what protein shake or herbal tea you consume religiously, drinking your daily supply of water is still king. No matter what gym routine or yoga practice you follow, walking a hour or so a day is in many ways still the best all-round exercise. As far as we think we advance in our physical development, we cannot depart from these fundamentals.
There are certain ground realities that are simply part of our nature and we cannot ignore too long. Similarly, when it comes to the work we do, we may end up in taking a long and winding road, leading us down several alleyways, but our prime motivators and root passions will remain the same.
Burying your Passion
There may have been some early point in life, perhaps before you joined the career rat race, or before you were forced to relocate to an unfamiliar location, or before you decided on a major in college, when you had relative freedom. With less pressures shifting in your in this direction or that, you would gravitate to what seemed natural to you. Habits, hobbies, passions, interests, eccentricities or guilty pleasures, basically the things that made your personality that much more appealing, had more of a free reign.
Then you had to grow up, face the challenges of adult life, and make necessary compromises. Adulthood itself is much about learning the art of compromise. Then came family, finances and the rest. Months slip into years, and even decades, as you pursued your familiar path.
Then came the time when you get the chance to reflect. You begin to look back at the younger you, and remember what motivated you in your earlier years. That spark that animated you is something you may be sorely lacking at the present time. You realize that those skills or interests are still inherently within you, latent and rusty, waiting beneath the surface.
Pressing the Reset Button
It takes time and a degree of introspection to understand what your basic drivers are. These are the forces within you, that when aligned with your outside behavior and actions, creates an endless well of satisfaction. When you neglect these forces is when that well begins to dry up.
The question then is what to do once you recognize these fundamental parts of yourself. One approach is to put them on hold, ride out a few years or decades in the hope that when the affairs of work and family are settled, you can then pay the needed attention to this inner you. But then you will have to account for all that time of prime productivity that you gave to other pursuits while leaving yourself by the wayside.
Another approach, bolder if not wiser, is to go through a ‘reset’. This doesn’t necessarily mean upturning every aspect of your life, but to reorient your career or other activities towards those core motivators inside you. You can start a new career path or slowly maneuver yourself to trying something different but familiar from the past.
Once you press the reset button, you decide to avail yourself of something that life rarely offers: a second chance.
