Productivity

The older I get, the more I get satisfaction from accomplishing things. I know that sounds pretty obvious, but even though the level of satisfaction correlates with my perceived level of importance to the task, which is also obvious, I guess when I was younger I didn’t get satisfaction or recognize the positive feeling of accomplishing even from the smallest of tasks.

If I create a new song, or work on a new song and write a verse or something, I get a huge amount of satisfaction from that. If I fix something on my car, complete a project at work, or a freelance project, etc. I get a great feeling of accomplishment, satisfaction, etc. out of those things. With those things, there’s ego, money, etc. involved. The value of those things are very easy to recognize.

What’s different now is that I get a similar feeling (not the same, but similar) from taking out the trash, doing laundry, etc. Don’t get me wrong, those things are not enjoyable, and the don’t advance anything… I don’t learn anything, I don’t get any financial reward, it didn’t effect my health, relationships, etc. It’s just things that need be done. But even besides the fact that it’s things that maintain the household, it also make me feel productive. Yes, a day of pure relaxation is nice. I like not having to do anything sometimes. But even those days, there’s a point where I want to do some exercise, play my guitar, take a Spanish lesson, etc. I still want to feel like I accomplished something. You could make the argument that a day of nothing helps recharge you mentally and physically, so that is accomplishing something, and those things are important, but my brain needs activity.