{"id":2837,"date":"2019-12-18T20:46:00","date_gmt":"2019-12-18T20:46:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bloomsoup.com\/?p=2837"},"modified":"2021-09-19T16:24:13","modified_gmt":"2021-09-19T16:24:13","slug":"whats-the-point","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bloomsoup.com\/whats-the-point\/","title":{"rendered":"What’s the Point?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Do you sometimes wake up, look at your schedule and wonder, what’s the point? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

During demanding or unpleasant tasks, do the mental monsters creep from the shadows? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

If so, you’re not alone. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It’s easy to question the cause of our actions when we’re struggling to keep going or the things get tough. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I find this particularly prevalent if I’m engaged in an activity that demands significant mental or physical resources.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During a tiring workout or frustrating work activity, the cognitive wheels start turning and self-questioning kicks in. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It’s almost worse before I’ve started, when I’m looking for that spark of motivation to lace up the trainers or open the laptop.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why bother, I think. What’s the point? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This happens so often as to become an ingrained response and indeed, many of us are completely paralysed by the feeling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Causes<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

After some Colombo-style self-reflection, I’ve identified two predominant causes of this sensation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The reality gap<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Discontent is often just the gap between your expectations and reality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When you look at where you want to be and your current reality, it’s easy to get despondent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Say you’ve fallen down the YouTube click-hole, watching socially crafted influencer videos of fancy brunches, beach breaks and bikini parties.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then you realise you should probably clean the toilet or trim your toenails.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Slightly less glamorous and possibly not video-worthy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Anyway, as the reality gap emerges through self-comparison, it’s easy to enter a funk and wonder, what’s the point?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The hard thing<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Whenever we’re working on something hard, our mind screams at us to STOP!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I mean, once our basic survival needs are met, the purpose of pursuing hard things evaporates, at least according to our evolutionary impulses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These impulses don’t have a good concept of time. They’re all about instant gratification over delayed reward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, even if you’ll receive a greater future payoff by working hard today, you’re atavistic instincts don’t care.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They just want you to indulge in the chocolatey cookie goodness of today, and tomorrow be damned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The ego goblin<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

So to recap, either our life isn’t matching up to our elevated expectations or we’re trying to escape the hard stuff.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That’s when our ego gets involved…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now the ego’s one slippery little fish and requires all it’s cunning to make us question ourselves and consign us to a pit of despair…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So instead of being productive little humans, we’ll watch Netflix with a face full of gummy bears.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It knows it can’t try the direct assault, so it gets sly, whispering dastardly questions that have no answer. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Things like, what’s the point?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Because it knows we’ll stop taking positive action to ponder our very existence, even though it won\u2019t do us any good. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I’m mean, it’s not as if philosophers have been questioning the meaning of life since time immemorial…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, rather than solve this universal riddle in a mental quickstep, we simply spin our psychological wheels on an unsolvable problem. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In any case, the ego’s got its way. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We generally won’t do the hard thing, or we get frustrated and take a break, retreating back to the comfort zone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What’s the point then?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

On a logical level, if we give up and stop striving, life gets noticeably worse. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even if there’s no greater universal purpose, it\u2019s better to embrace the pain of doing the hard thing today to create a better tomorrow. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There might well be no point to it, but there\u2019s definitely no point in just giving up. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trying might not get you anywhere but you definitely know you won\u2019t get anywhere by downing tools. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, when the going gets tough, ignore those evil ego whispers and just keep on truckin’. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Do you sometimes wake up, look at your schedule and wonder, what’s the point? <\/p>\n

During demanding or unpleasant tasks, do the mental monsters creep from the shadows? <\/p>\n

If so, you’re not alone…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2840,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nWhat's the Point? | Bloomsoup<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"What's the point? Good question. In this article, we examine this common psychological response when the going gets tough. Click here to learn more.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/bloomsoup.com\/whats-the-point\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"What's the Point? | Bloomsoup\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"What's the point? Good question. 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