When the Ongoing Work Gets Tedious Is It All Still Worthwhile?
Despite the ongoing work feeling never-ending and tedious – yes, it’s still worth it.
Who I am today has taken me a long time to forge.
What’s more, there’ve been numerous false starts, mistakes, errors, and total fuck-ups. Yet here I am – who, what, how, and why I desire to be.
But that’s not the end of the story. It’s never the end of the story until literally, the end – as in the death of the current meatsuit (body). Life is an ongoing work in progress.
No matter what you’re doing – letting life live you, curling up in a ball and lamenting life/awaiting death, or striving to take the wheel and do the driving – life goes on.
There is never One True Way, utter and total perfection, nor reaching the ultimate height and having nowhere else to go. Nope, there’s always ongoing work – for as long as we live.
Some days feel really tedious. The process of living can be challenging to variable degrees depending on people, places, circumstances, environment, and more. Often there’s no single thing you can put your finger on – you just feel off and wrong.
Just to add insult to injury – something that worked yesterday might not work today. That just adds a level of frustration.
Why am I bringing this up? Because I’m feeling frustrated with a few elements of my life just now. Writing them out is both cathartic – and shares a process and experience I’m 100% certain I am not alone in.
My tedious BS issues
I’ve been exploring Pathwalking, mindfulness, and striving to live the fullest possible life on MY terms for years now. Along the way, I’ve been happier and more content with my life overall and experienced some really cool stuff as such.
But I’ve also had ongoing frustrations. Not to put too fine a point it – this tends to be about finances.
Part of the frustration comes from this being an utterly first-world problem on my part. I’m not hurting, and we’re not wanting for basics. All of the financial concerns are about retirement savings and more stability here-and-now.
(I am not going to write certain words here in the interest of conscious reality creation. Focusing on and thinking about certain negatives just empowers them. Phrasing matters.)
And that right there is the single biggest issue I have. Reframing thoughts and feelings that I know don’t serve me. I get so caught up in where I am now – but would prefer not to be – and how I got here that I neglect my own mindfulness practices.
It’s too easy to get caught up in the tedious BS. And that makes the ongoing work that much more frustrating.
Is it still worth it? Yes. Because when I sit back and consider where I am in my life, I’m in a genuinely good place. Sure, it could be better – and there’s discomfort. But that’s why it’s called a comfort zone – because it’s comfortable, and leaving it is not.
Long story short (too late) I must get out of my head more – and let it go and keep moving forward when I don’t.
The ongoing work is work
Let’s face a couple of important facts here.
One – there is never a genuine, true, quick-fix solution to anything. Every quick fix either misses something important – or requires more maintenance than it lets on. But it’s never one-and-done and set as such.
Two – Very, very few things in this life are one-and-done. Fine, you got ‘X’ done and succeeded at something. But now there’s ‘Y’ and ‘Z’. One-and-done might seem awesome and desirable – but there’s still often a catch and something more to consider.
Three – One-Size-Fits-All nearly never does. There are 8 billion people on this planet, and we are all variable in more ways than easily counted. So just because something worked for that person doesn’t mean it will work the same for you.
Ongoing work is more or less the literal definition of life.
Every day is new. Similar, maybe. But new and different nonetheless. That means every day you have choices and decisions before you.
Yes, everyone needs a day off from time to time. We all need to breathe, take breaks, and relax. What’s more, we all have off days, bad days, and unfortunate occurrences.
No matter what happens – we’re always empowered to choose our life experiences. But it’s perfectly normal for the ongoing work to feel tedious and frustrating sometimes. Recognizing and acknowledging this empowers us to work with it – rather than allow it to work us over.
Keep getting up
No matter how many times you trip, stumble, fall, or crash – you keep getting up.
Sure, sometimes it’s with no vigor and zero enthusiasm. But so long as you’re living, part of the ongoing work of life is to keep getting up.
As the Japanese proverb says,
“Fall down seven times, get up eight.”
We all know people who don’t choose this. They literally or figuratively stop getting up, lament life, and await death in one way or another.
Here’s the thing. You can accept that life just is, and neutrally go wherever the currents of it take you. Or you can believe life is a piece of shit and not worth the effort, and negatively go wherever the currents of it take you. Or you can view life as full of potential, possibility, and unique challenges – and positively swim the currents as you prefer to choose.
You will do all of these. That’s human nature. Nobody is 100% neutral, positive, or negative. Human beings are constantly changing because change is the only universal constant.
The reality is this – despite the ongoing work feeling never-ending and tedious – yes, it’s still worth it. Because you get to choose it.
Ongoing work always changes
I have chosen to walk my own path in this life because I desire to experience life as fully as possible. I want to see who I can be, where I can go, what I can do, and learn as much as I can along the way.
This is frequently challenging. But when I just let the flow carry me along and I don’t act in my own best interest, it’s even more tedious and frustrating.
I have gotten out of my head before. I can do so again. My tedious BS issues are mine to resolve. And I know that I am more than capable of doing so.
I also know that just because today might suck, tomorrow might be amazing. For every negative and neutral day, there can always be a new positive. Rather than lament this and fall prey to rote, routine, and tedium – I can choose how to face it.
It’s worth it – because I get one shot in this meatsuit to live this life as I know it. And I figure why just exist when it’s possible to experience and thrive? I’d rather work with change than rail against it. And I’d rather make choices and decisions myself than have them made for me.
How do you approach the ongoing work in your life experience?
This is the five-hundred and sixty-ninth exploration of my Pathwalking philosophy. These weekly essays are my ideas for – and experiences with – using mindfulness and positivity to walk along a chosen path of life to consciously create reality.
I share this journey as part of my desire to make a difference in this world and empower as many people as I can with conscious reality creation.
Thank you for joining me. Feel free to re-post and share this.
The first year of Pathwalking, including expanded ideas, is available here. Check out Amazon for my published fiction and nonfiction works.
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