Life in the “matrix” involves getting some education, graduating, finding a job and ensuring it pays well and enables acquisition of material and property, and for some, also finding a life partner, starting a family, going on vacations, repeating the cycle until a certain age is reached and retirement sets in.

Hopefully in that time, enough resources would have been accumulated and preserved to sustain life after active work duties. Often not long after retirement, the body is weakened, and spare time is spent on raising grandchildren and burying contemporaries. In that lifecycle, boredom occasionally sets in when routine activities are disrupted. I’d like to argue that boredom is a sign of regression in, if not lack of personal development. By Nimroth Gwetsa, 31 December 2024.

Yes, we can’t spend our entire lives working much less have everything being about personal development. I, however, believe retirement is a sure way of ensuring a quicker death. I do not believe the human mind is designed to stop thinking about solutions to problems and offering such insights to those with more physical strength to run around solving those problems. We begin to die when we refuse to apply our minds on developing ourselves or not advancing those around us, particularly the younger generation.

I am not against taking a break from physical activities when a certain age is reached, but am advocating that there be a change in career rather than opting to sit and do nothing daily. And by doing something, I’m also not referring to spending inordinate time entertaining yourself. Anything that does not stretch our mental faculties works against prolongation of our lives. But I’m also not advocating that there be busyness. There’s a difference between being busy and productive.

Busyiness leads to exhaustion, fatigue and burnout. Productivity refreshes because you do not have to work hard to attain progress. Busyness usually involves doing chores or activities. Often these have little to do with strategic goals you set for yourself, but are about completing tasks that someone else could be doing instead.

Productivity I’m referring to is about pursuing those strategic goals and achieving significant progress with little effort. In productivity, there can never be boredom, much less, fatigue. But being busy is another sure way of fast-tracking ill health and death.

Yes, it’s impossible to avoid being busy at all. So long as there are bills to pay, food to gather, loved ones and eve yourself to take care of, you cannot stop being busy at some point. Just ensure that busyness does not dominate your time away from productive work. Unfortunately, we live in a fallen world. Busyness comes easy, so do things that are not good for your soul and mental health.

Good things do not come naturally but must be sought and dug from the deep bellies of your physical and mental strength to attain them. Such dedication does not come easily and it is exhausting and can lead to fatigue. But perseverance in enduring hardship in such dedication can lead to everlasting joy. The good thing about productivity, it leads to bigger and better goals and smarter ways of working. It results in the creation of what is commonly known as a “legacy”.

There’s no boredom or exhaustion in productivity, only the feeling that there isn’t much time available to do all you’ve planned. But where you have no goals to pursue, or “legacy” to advance, you’ll seek solace in entertainment and when it is insufficient or not offering variety, boredom sets in. And often such boredom is accompanied or followed by mischief. You then become a pain to be around with and few become willing to be in your company.

Because good things do not come easily but require effort and dedication, it follows that retirement cannot be a consideration even at an advanced age. Rather, have that time taken up by a career change that agrees with your physical and mental strength and quality of health than spending it doing nothing or not knowing what to do.

Stress will always be there. But choose the kind of stress to afflict you. Instead of being stressed by regressive activities, choose to be stressed by activities that will result in attainment of progress, in whatever good thing you’ve set your eyes on.

As we close the year, celebrate your gains, however small, and reflect on your failures without dwelling on them as this will cause depression. Focus on ways you can try different approaches to avoid experiencing the same failures in the new year. Everything comes to an end, even failure will end. Set your eyes on life after success. Maybe avoid being alone, but choose people you can spend time with carefully as they can exacerbate the pain.

Many hate the idea of God, but I honestly do not see how best you can avoid prolonged pain without His intervention and help. With this, also be careful because charlatans are everywhere even in the house of God masquerading as His servants only to find they are the devil’s sleeper agents. But this is a topic for another day.

May 2025 be a perfect year for you.