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Raw 'n' Uncut: Predictability Sucks
25 Plays1 month ago
Is there anything worse for the human soul than UTTER PREDICTABILITY?!?
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Transcript
Introduction and Setting
00:00:01
Speaker
Welcome, friends, to another episode of Life's Effin' Nuts. I am your host, JR. Life's Effin' Nuts, one man's stories and ruminations on being human in an upside down world.
00:00:19
Speaker
How's everyone doing out there in podcast land? I'm recording this on a Friday. I'm sitting in my Black on black on black Cadillac CT4 2021 outside of my co-working space.
00:00:38
Speaker
just ah Just got out of the gym, had had a pretty hard boxing class this morning, good workout. Now I'm enjoying a workout smoothie from the little earth bar at my gym, it's called earth bar.
Gym as a Metaphor for Renewal
00:00:54
Speaker
So feeling pretty good, I like going to the gym.
00:01:00
Speaker
It's like a baptism. I usually you know i go in there, they work us out really, really hard. I come out kind of feeling like a new person, so kind of like a baptism.
Balancing Adventure and Routine
00:01:18
Speaker
For those who've listened to this podcast before, you probably have a sense that there are certain themes that I kind of chew on a lot or kind of navigate.
00:01:29
Speaker
fairly frequently, consistently. And one of those themes is I guess my relationship to time and structure. And and to be more specific, generally there's a pretty extreme polarity in me throughout my life, my pretty much my whole life.
00:01:53
Speaker
I love adventures and I love traveling and I love movement and I love motion and I love novel stimuli.
00:02:03
Speaker
I haven't, I'm not like a, you know, there's some people who are like quote unquote travelers. I'm not like that. But yeah, I've,
00:02:17
Speaker
I have my fair share of travel. My family and I used to go on trips when I was younger. And then as a grown up, you know, I've done smaller, mostly mostly trips in the United States. But for me, sometimes even like a three day trip, where I take a train or something like that, I still consider that a trip. And throughout my life,
00:02:39
Speaker
and And I'm sure I'm not unique in this, but when I'm on an adventure and you guys have probably heard me say this before, when I'm on an adventure in new environments with motion and movement and unpredictability, I feel happier. I feel lighter. I feel more free. I feel more instinctual. I feel more curious. I feel more open. I feel more present.
00:03:08
Speaker
And I'm talking like, you know, I i think, like I said, i'm I don't think I'm unique at all, obviously, in enjoying traveling. But I might be somewhat unique in how much I enjoy it. Like I, in how much I enjoy it and the contrast between how much I don't like sort of the normal nine to five rigors routines kind of thing. Like there's such an enormous chasm
00:03:37
Speaker
between how happy I am when I'm on the road, when I'm on an adventure, and how kind of muted and subdued I am in the normal grind of life.
Struggles with Structure
00:03:50
Speaker
and yeah so and so the norm And the normal grind of life, for whatever reason, and I could probably trace this and figure it out why, and I have in some ways tried at certain times, but
00:04:05
Speaker
left to my own devices, like within the structures and routines of commitments, obligations, and responsibilities, I've become so mechanistic. Like I just, I can't help myself that like, I was just like structure everything and am like so married to the clock. Like in some way, and i I used to even be more extreme when I was younger, but like in some ways,
00:04:35
Speaker
i you know I used to even when I was young, like in my twenties, I was like time my showers, which kind of crazy, right? Like everything was like on a clock, efficiency, productivity, organization.
00:04:52
Speaker
And ultimately it's kind of miserable, like that level of regiment, for me at least, and that level of predictability. I think it's the predictability that really, really gets me.
00:05:08
Speaker
predictability man. And you know I'd be generally very curious how other people navigate the rigors, the demands, theonsibilities the responsibilities, the obligations, the commitments of of life, of work, of family.
00:05:26
Speaker
Like I imagine that there's people who who do it in a more free flowing way.
00:05:33
Speaker
um and But I've always been super, it's not it's not like I'm not aware of this dichotomy between how free and happy and instinctual I feel when I'm on an adventure and how kind of bogged down and and blue I feel in the the monotonous, redundant, predictable routines and mechanics of life.
00:05:53
Speaker
And i've I've tried at times to be intentional. Like, okay, how can I at least bring a little bit of that adventurous spirit, a little bit of that openness, a little bit of that instinctual instinctual orientation to the world, to my normal regular life. When I was younger, you know, I i even tried to do things like,
00:06:17
Speaker
went like, act like a tourist in my own town, you know, like go on tourist tours in San Francisco when I was younger, just to try to like, inject my life with a little bit of that free, freeness and spirit. But it never quite worked. It always felt like it always felt forced or like it was and like a token gesture.
00:06:42
Speaker
So, and I mean, I don't, well,
Community and Relationships as Solutions
00:06:46
Speaker
you know what? I think the closest thing that I've found to a solution to this is community. That for most of my adult life, I've been pretty self-dependent and solitude-ness. And I think that being self-dependent and solitude-ness allows for the level of kind of structure and regiment that I have often had.
00:07:11
Speaker
But when I'm in community and when things flow a little bit more freely and there's like inherently more unpredictability with more people and more social dynamics, that has been the closest thing i I've experienced to a solution to this this ah this lifelong quandary or quagmire community and the the adventure of relationship genuine relationship where you're genuinely care about the person or people that you're with when you are genuinely sharing space and experience. You're not just transactionally sharing space and experience. So I do think that potentially is ah a solution for this this interesting thing. But regardless, I think it's an interesting thing to think about.
Critique of Modern Work Culture
00:08:08
Speaker
You know, generally, i you know, since I was young, i've i've when I was young, the idea of a nine to five, a career path, a, you know, punching the clock, putting on a suit, that all sounded so, so, so, so miserable, man. Like for squares, and and I've shared about this on on previous episodes, if you've heard, you know, I talk about this a lot.
00:08:33
Speaker
that there's something about the way that mainstream American modern culture is designed sort of the the unconscious, the unconscious expectations and structures and systems that I think largely it's just it's an unimaginative
00:08:59
Speaker
not um Maybe it's not even unimaginable, maybe it's intentional because of the system. We you know we live in a capitalist system so the the idea is is about productivity, is about efficiency. um The people who own the companies want to get as much output from their workers as they possibly can so that they can grow their profits and grow their products and grow their brands. So I don't think it's actually an accident that so that our mainstream American culture and society is designed this way with such an obsession around structure, regiment, efficiency, work ethic, all those things. um But just I guess, I don't think they're, mean I mean, and some people probably love that, right? Some people probably, you know, wake up at 5am and hop out of bed and
00:09:47
Speaker
get a hard workout and drink a protein smoothie and put a suit on and head to the office and just kick ass and make lots of money. I'm sure there are a lot of people like that. But I would say my guess, for the majority of people, that kind of the kind of grind and just the work obsessed, work centric culture that we live in is not the best thing for our solar spirit. That would be my guess.
Seeking a Balanced Lifestyle
00:10:12
Speaker
That would be my guess. I mean, for me, like as as a creative person, as someone who likes to think, as someone who likes to like, so I love spaciousness, to not feel rushed. I hate feeling rushed. I hate feeling busy.
00:10:29
Speaker
um I mean, I too can I can get into kind of like hardcore work mode, where I kind of get off on it a little bit, like grinding it out. But That's like that's kind of like an adaptation of my personality. I don't think it's like my core personality I think my core personality loves loves loves loves spaciousness spaciousness Love spaciousness like my favorite thing in the entire world spaciousness Anyway, these are just some Random ish ruminations and reflections on a Friday so
00:11:13
Speaker
hope Hope all you all out there in podcast land doing all right doing well um hopeful Hopefully Whether you love the grind or whether you love spaciousness or whether you love something in between Hopefully you have what you need and what you want This this today this week this weekend this month this year this life All right. I'm JR life's effing nuts