You’re not doing enough is something I know I need to hear.
Maybe it’s something you need to hear too.
I had this thought during my workout the other day.
Mental Game
At the time it was a mental reminder to push through my workout. Since I started traveling at the end of April, I had fallen off doing my HIIT workouts every morning.
Had I managed to stay active? Sure. We hiked and biked and swam our way through Indiana, Tennessee, North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, and then finally home to Louisiana.
But there’s something about getting a workout done on a mat after a long day of sedentary work that is just not as appealing as biking in a new part of the country.
I was struggling through the sweat and self-discipline of it all. I needed to do more.
Self-care or Laziness?
In a society that is all too eager to sell the story that you are doing enough and that actually, you’re probably doing too much, hearing that you may need to check yourself and put in more effort can be a good and honest thing.
The societal mantra of self-care has swung far enough at this point to feel one-sided. AKA, if I hear one more Better Help #ad, I think I’m going to unsubscribe from the internet.
Hustle culture is the antithesis of self-care and has gotten a bad rap for a number of years, but now it seems that we’re all just a little lazier and don’t mind being so. Of course, it’s fair to say that burnout is a real thing that should be guarded against, but when was the last time you truly felt burned out? Truly.
You may be doing plenty enough, working 12 hours a day, 7 days a week in a stressful job, but as for me, I know I’m not doing enough.
The Dangers of Not Doing Enough
Not only do we hear the need for self-care touted again and again (at least, I do on my side of the internet), but we also have so many distractions readily available that gobble up our time while we’re off taking a much-needed break.
Que the tech giants.
In this attention economy, you can’t forget that YOU are the product. The apps may be free, but the true and precious payment is your attention. They want your time, and they are dangerously good at getting it.
And what’s worse is, we don’t even feel that bad about it because we deserve it, right? The flip side of taking it easy and prioritizing self-care is the ever-present distractions that can monopolize our attention and end up not feeling like a break at all.
It’s almost like the messaging concerning not overworking yourself is a sneaky plea for more time spent on subscriptions and technological amenities.
Realizing that you’re not doing enough may be the very thing that helps you unplug from the hours of ‘me time’ spent consuming too many videos, scrolling too much, and generally overindulging in the easy access to the world wide web and all the streaming services that go with it.
The dangers of “not doing enough” in this scenario are slipping too far into Lala land and waking up one day realizing you haven’t done nearly what you had hoped and you don’t know where the time has gone.
Calling it a danger is not a hyperbole in this case. It’s convicting.
Reality Check – Who You Surround Yourself With Matters
Surrounding myself with people who are working towards things is an invaluable reality check. This often looks like reaching out to family and friends who are working towards things that inspire me and that align with what I’m striving for.
It also means exchanging the ‘just for fun’ podcasts with content that helps me learn more about the areas I’m working towards. In my case, those areas include real estate and writing.
Bigger Pockets has been an invaluable resource on the real estate front.
One podcast that really hit home for me, and that is primarily to blame for the subject of this post, is episode 761: From Sleeping on the Floor to Making $80k/Month (in 2 Years!) w/Yamundow Camara. The show interviews Yamundow who became an orphan at 11 and made her way from sleeping on the floor of a relative’s home in Africa to the U.S. on scholarship where she has since built a real estate empire that cash flows over $80k a month in just two years. Her story is phenomenal, intense, and inspiring.
When asked about her ‘why’ Yamundow shared her heart to avoid living in poverty again and a desire to provide for her family. She had a drive and passion to never have her children experience the poverty she had to experience as a child.
Her story involves working hard in school to get scholarships, graduating to work as a data scientist, and eventually holding two full-time data analysis jobs. One of which was working for the CDC during COVID. On top of all of this, she studied and began investing in real estate like it was her third full-time job.
Working Your Plan
In this next section of ‘You’re not doing enough’, I’d like to expose myself. Part of the reason this website exists is to grow as a writer and to get inspired writing about things I enjoy, as well as things that help me to grow in being more financially independent.
Mainly I have just been sitting on autopilot and in a state of lethargy. Can I find some good excuses? Maybe one. But that shouldn’t be the focus, the focus should be taking ownership to direct my time to grow and study and truly apply myself to the things I’m doing.
I have a good idea of what I need to do, but taking action is where I fall short. So, here’s to choosing to take intentional focus-driven action every day.
How to Check if You’re Not Doing Enough
- Stop and ask yourself if you’re doing enough. Really. In a heartfelt honest sort of way. You’ll know the answer immediately. And just make sure not to give the voice of laziness time to come up with excuses.
- Check your screen time on your phone. Settings > General > Screen Time. Don’t have that set up? You’ll know the answer if you’re being honest.
- Think about how you’d describe your life at the moment to your future (or current child). For example, ‘at that time of my life I was really into or working on…’ Do those prompts sound phony? Should it read more like I was watching a lot of YouTube / Streaming services, or documentaries instead of working on the things I know I needed to be working on?
