29Apr 2018 by RJ Reyes

What Now?

Have you ever felt lost after accomplishing what you need to accomplish?

That’s where I’m at right now. It’s that kind of depression similar to what you feel after coming back from an awesome trip.

That feeling that triggers the question after reaching the end of your journey: So what’s next? Where do we go from here?

Sometimes, our “what’s next?” is already pre-determined. Like when we finished school, we know the next step was to find a job. When we started the job, we knew the next step was to make it through the probation period. When we become a permanent employee, the next step was not to become better at adding value to the company. The goal is not to get in trouble…?

But sometimes, the answer to “what’s next?” is not that obvious. I don’t know what to do next after finishing my (personal) side project. I don’t know what to play next after beating the last mission in Metal Gear Solid V: Phantom Pain. I’m itching to buy another book after finishing the “Life Principles” chapter of Ray Dalio’s book even though I still have a few books I haven’t read.

How do I plan to resolve this? I’ll take some time off until that next surge of passion or inspiration strikes me.

And while waiting for that inspiration to strike me, what I can do is to…

Catch Up On Other Things

Priorities – we set them accordingly.

I stay for about half an hour to an hour at work so I can catch up on unaccomplished tasks. That feeling of overwhelm can break you if you don’t know how to handle it. I remember that meeting where a member of my team cried because she doesn’t know how the hell she can finish her work on time. When I saw that, I realized how much she cared about her work. She’s dedicated. I respected that. But if she had a better handle of feeling overwhelmed, she’d be in much much better shape of accomplishing just about anything.

Tears come out of our eyes when we are feeling overwhelmed. Crying has a stronger correlation to feeling overwhelmed than feeling joy or sadness. I had tears coming out my eyes one time watching a movie. But the scene that made me tear up had nothing to do with feeling joy, sadness or anger. That made me curious as to why I felt like crying at that moment. Then I realized that the scene reminded me of: why I do what I do today or a certain event in my past that shaped who I am today. Now that’s deep. I don’t expect you to understand.

But if there’s one thing I wanted to point out (especially for men) is that crying is ok…when no one is watching. LOL I’m kidding! Cry responsibly. Don’t cry in a crowd of people who don’t care enough to understand what you’re going through.

The amount of tasks I have to do at work is overwhelming but not overwhelming enough to break me. Besides, a job is a job. It’s a PART of life, NOT your life. Which is why I try my best to keep my debts and finances in check. So I don’t have to worry too much about getting fired.

Don’t get me wrong, I like what I do at work. And I care (that’s why I don’t mind putting extra hours). But I won’t let it cause me to lose…

Sleep

I listened to another podcast about the importance of sleep. Which is why I decided to focus on it next month. I thought about buying another book about it but I couldn’t justify why I should. The goal is simple: uninterrupted high-quality sleep for 7-9 hours. Super simple but super hard to do.

Reminds me of a friend who wanted my help…